Incidence of hearing loss in COVID-19 patients: A covid hospital-based study in the eastern part of India

ABSTRACT

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) is an acute respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus(SARS CoV-2). Clinically COVID-19 presented with respiratory illness and also death is a possible outcome. Hearing loss is an interesting clinical outcome associated with COVID-19 infections. Objective: This study is designed to analyze the incidence of hearing loss in COVID-19 patients after discharge from the COVID-19 hospital. Methods: Twenty-eight patients of COVID-19 discharged from COVID hospital presenting with hearing loss participated in this study. The age ranges from 16 years to 52 years. Patients those had hearing loss before admission to COVID hospital were excluded from this study. All these patients underwent pure tone audiometry, tympanometry and Otoacoustic emission study. Results: Out of 28 patients, 18 (64.28%) were male and 10 (35.71%) were female with male to female ratio of 1.81. The age ranges of the participants were 16 to 52 years. Twenty-two patients presented with unilateral hearing loss and six presented with bilateral hearing loss. Out of 28 patients, 24 (85.71%) were presented with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and 4 (14.28%) presented with conductive hearing loss. Out of the 28 patient 21 patients (75%) presented with unilateral hearing loss whereas 17 (60.71%) showed sudden-onset hearing loss. Conclusion: Hearing loss in COVID-19 has not received much attention by the medical professionals.COVID-19 infection could have deleterious effects on the inner ear specifically on the hair cells of the cochlea despite patients are asymptomatic. The proper understanding of the mechanisms behind hearing loss in COVID-19 infections needs further research. © IJCRR.