Causes of hearing loss in patients (age: 4-60 years) presenting at Shifa Foundation Community Health Centre, Islamabad.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the causes of hearing loss in patients (age: 4-60 years) presenting at Shifa Foundation Community Health Centre, Islamabad.

Setting and Duration:  This research was done at the Shifa Foundation Community Health Centre (SFCHC) in Islamabad in the ENT department from May 2023 to June 2024.

Methodology: Approval of the study was taken before starting the study from institutional review board (IRB). A total of 110 patients presenting in OPD with complaint of hearing loss were subjected to detailed history, complete ear, nose and throat examination to find the cause of hearing loss, tuning fork tests (a crude method to find the type and degree of hearing loss) and pure tone audiometry (PTA) for documentation and confirmation of type and degree of hearing loss. Along with all this information demographic information of all the patients in the study including name, age, gender, and all the Otological evaluation parameters were recorded on a predesigned proforma especially for this study.

Results: The mean age was 21.37 ± 13.71 years and majority 31 (28.2%) of the patients belong to 10-20 years’ age bracket followed by 30 (27.3%) patients who had age of less than 10 years. There was male predominance in the study sample and 61 (55%) were male patients. The mean duration of hearing loss was 3.69 ± 5.19 years with most of the patients had a 1-3 years duration of hearing loss followed by 31 (28.2%) patients who presented within one year of hearing loss. Chronic suppurative otitis media 28 (25.46%), Otitis media with effusion 28 (25.46%) and acute suppurative otitis media 7 (6.37%) were the most common causes of conductive hearing loss.

Conclusion: Chronic suppurative otitis media (50.9%), Otitis media with effusion (25.4%) and acute suppurative otitis media (8.17%) were found to be the most common causes of conductive hearing loss.

Key Words: Hearing loss, Chronic suppurative otitis media, Otitis Media with Effusion.