[Evaluation of hearing in patients with diabetes]

Hearing in 60 diabetics aged 20-70 years were studied by means of tonal, verbal and B'ekèsy audiometry, SISI tests, Fowler tests, stapedius reflex and tone decay tests. The material was grouped according to the diabetes type, chronicity of disease, age, sex and presence of retino- and polyneuropathy. The results proved that diabetes may cause the progressive form of hearing loss which depend of chronicity of disease and age of patients. Sometimes the hypo-acuity may be found in the recent form of diabetes, rarely as sudden deafness. The hearing impairment is more frequent among the retino- and polyneuropathy patients. The localisation of lesions may be in all part of hearing pathways from the labyrinth to cortical areas.