Use of Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) to detect sub-clinical inner ear damage in divers of the Indian Navy.

BACKGROUND: Professional Divers are at a high risk of Sensorineural Hearing Impairment. Divers may sustain sub-clinical hearing loss that is not identified on pure tone audiometry (PTA). Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) reflect the functional status of the Outer Hair Cells. OAE testing constitutes the only non-invasive means of objective cochlear investigation and may be a more sensitive measure than PTA in identifying sub-clinical hearing loss. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed to determine utility of Otoacoustic Emissions testing in detecting sub-clinical Inner Ear damage in divers of Indian Navy. Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAE) levels were measured in 50 audiologically asymptomatic ship divers of Indian Navy and compared with control group comprising of 50 normal hearing individuals. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were observed between the study and control group. Also no correlation was observed between diving years and TEOAE levels. There was no correlation greater than -0.49 between diving years and TEOAE SNR. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that TEOAE levels are not a sensitive tool in identifying ships divers without any history of noise exposure at risk for developing hearing loss.