Sensorineural hearing loss( cochlear neuritis) - Causes, symptoms and treatment. MF.

The peripheral section of the auditory analyzer is a complex system consisting of 3 parts: the outer, middle and inner ear. Each of the departments has a number of composite elements.

Outer ear - Ear and external auditory meatus.

Middle ear - Cave with mastoid process, drum cavity containing auditory ossicles( anvil, hammer, stapes), Eustachian auditory tube and tympanic membrane.

The inner ear consists of a cochlea( sound-receiving part) and semicircular canals( the peripheral part of the vestibular analyzer).Such a complex structure and caused a wide range of ear diseases.

Sensorineural hearing loss is a noninfectious disease of the inner ear. With this disease, the auditory nerve and, consequently, the sound perception suffer. The main symptom is hearing loss, very often accompanied by subjective noise in the ears. Most often talk about acute and subacute sensorineural hearing loss, since treatment is effective only with these forms of the disease. This disorder affects people of all age groups, but with age, to some extent, the hearing decreases in all people. This condition is called presbybacosis( age-related decrease in hearing acuity).The main cause of these conditions is atrophy of the sound-sensing nerve endings of Corti's organ. It is important to know that when a chronic

is diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss , hearing, unfortunately, is not recoverable.

General information about sensorineural hearing loss

Synonyms are sensorineural hearing loss, cochlear neuritis, neuritis of the auditory nerve( the last two terms are inaccurate, since the end of "it" indicates inflammation, but there is no such thing as an inflammation of the auditory nerve).

It is separately necessary to say what clinical forms have the disease. The criterion is its prescription:

• up to 4 weeks - acute sensorineural hearing loss - treatment effectiveness is 70-90%,
• from 1 month to 3 months - subacute sensorineural hearing loss - treatment effectiveness 30-70%,
• from 3 months -chronic sensorineural hearing loss - the effectiveness of treatment is questionable

Symptoms of sensorineural hearing loss

Often after the acute respiratory syndrome, psychoemotional stress, intoxication symptoms of the disease appear. The main symptom of sensorineural hearing loss is hearing loss. Both one ear and both can be affected. A very common symptom in this disease is the noise in the ear. It can be high-frequency( ringing, squeaking, "buzzer"), which is more often, and low-frequency( hum).Such phenomena require immediate medical attention.

Causes of sensorineural hearing loss and hearing loss risk factors

An unambiguous coherent pattern of pathogenesis of sensorineural hearing loss is sometimes difficult to determine. However, it is reliably known that there may be several reasons for this disease. In the first place among them are infectious virus diseases - influenza and SARS, infectious parotitis( Pig).Another main cause of sensorineural hearing loss is trophic disorders of the nervous tissue( vascular disorders, poor blood supply).The cause of poor nerve supply is arteriosclerosis of the vessels, hypertension, vegetative-vascular dystonia. A special place is occupied by hearing disorders as a result of strong emotional stress. The defeat of the auditory nerve can occur due to craniocerebral injuries, acoustic injuries( a brief but excessively strong sound - a shot, a shout, a whistle).There are a number of chemicals that have ototoxic effect. These are industrial and household substances. Very often, the reason for sensorineural hearing loss is the long-term use of ototoxic drugs - antibiotics( aminoglycosides), antimalarials, salicylates.

There is such a form as idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss, this is when the cause of the development of damage to the hearing organ can not be reliably detected. Very rarely there is a case when a young active, healthy person unfortunately irretrievably loses hearing without a clear reason.

Prophylaxis of sensorineural hearing loss

Prevention rules are simple - avoidance of risk factors. It is necessary to treat timely infections of the upper respiratory tract, take all medications only as directed by the doctor. A special risk group is made up of persons working on toxic, noisy production;also harmful vibration. In such cases, it is necessary to comply with all safety measures and comply with the work regime( when working in headphones, make more frequent short breaks in work).These people should change their work when the first symptoms of neurosensory hearing loss appear. In the absence of such an opportunity, it is necessary to observe the otolaryngologist every 3 months and take preventive medications( tanakan, trental)

Complications of sensorineural hearing loss

Since the disease of noninfectious nature and defeat is limited only to the inner ear, there are no secondary complications of this disease. However, in the absence of treatment and prevention, the disease progresses and leads to complete deafness with a minimal probability of recovery. It is very important to begin treatment as soon as possible when symptoms appear.

Diagnosis of sensorineural hearing loss

On examination, no visual changes in the ear are detected. It is very important to tell in detail the events of life that preceded hearing loss. The doctor, suspected of neurosensory hearing loss, can perform tuning fork tests. To verify the diagnosis and accurately determine the degree of hearing loss, a hardware test is performed - tone threshold audiometry( information is available in the corresponding section).With the results of this study, the diagnosis is made with 100% accuracy.

Treatment of sensorineural hearing loss

In the first hours of the appearance of noise in the ear and hearing loss, you should immediately consult a doctor. Sensorineural hearing loss is treated in a hospital, becauserequires a comprehensive treatment. It consists of "droppers" that include drugs that improve blood circulation in the brain, which increase metabolism in the nervous tissue. Also, the course of treatment includes hormonal and diuretic drugs with a decongestant purpose. Very important vitamins of group B( thiamin( vitB1) and pyridoxine( vitB6)).After discharge, it takes a long time to take the tablets( tanakan, trental) with prophylactic purposes. It is important to understand what happens and so, when the purpose of treatment is not the restoration of hearing, tk.the nervous tissue was partially irretrievably lost. However, it is not important in this situation to stop the hearing loss process

A radical method of treatment of irretrievably lost hearing is the operation of cochlear implantation. With the help of this operation, thousands of deaf and hard of hearing children around the world have once again enjoyed the joy of communicating with the world around them, these children are capable of learning and achieve results sometimes no worse than their peers. A whole team of specialists from surgeons to defectologists conduct a course of long-term rehabilitation, which allows the release of full-fledged members of society.