Characterization of Hearing Loss in Adult Patients With Nondialysis Chronic Kidney Disease

To confirm the association between chronic kidney disease and sensorineural hearing loss in non-dialysis non-diabetic patients and to establish the audiological profile of these patients indicating the possible location of the auditory damage.

Cross-sectional study.

Tertiary referral center.

Patients between 18 and 60 years old with chronic kidney disease, without diabetes mellitus and without personal history of otology disease, were compared with a healthy control group pared by sex and age to establish differences between their audiological profile.

Pure tone audiometry (PTA), transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs), distortion products otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), and auditory brainstem responses (ABR) were performed in both groups.

Mean and standard deviation of PTA auditory thresholds, TEOAEs reproducibility, DPOAEs level/noise, and ABR absolute latency and interwave latency were measured, and compared using linear mixed models.

Fifty one cases were included and compared with 51 healthy volunteers. The audiometric profile found in patients with chronic kidney disease was a sensorineural hearing loss in 4 to 8 kHz frequencies in the PTA, a decrease in the TEOAEs reproducibility and a decrease in the DPOAEs level. An enlargement in the V wave absolute latency and III to V and I to V interwave latency in the ABR were also found but within normal range.

There is an association between chronic kidney disease in non-dialysis non diabetic adults patients and sensorineural hearing loss, affecting high frequencies and having the cochlea as the main site of auditory damage.