Vitiligo: an added risk factor to aminoglycosides ototoxicity

ABSTRACT

Hearing assessment in 30 vitiligo patients revealed the presence of mild to moderate subclinical high tone sensorineural deafness in 11 patients [36.7%]. Auditory brain stem response [ABR] was done for patients with moderate affection. In these patients, there was a significant decrease of the latency of the peak of wave 1 indicating a numerical decrease of melanocytes in the inner ear which may result in cochlear sensorineural hearing loss. There was also a significant increase of the interpeak latency of waves I-III. This can be explained by the presence of abnormal synaptic activity from the auditory nerve to the superior olivary nucleus. The present work suggests that destruction of the melanocytes in the inner ear of vitiligo patients is responsible for disturbance of the auditory function. This finding might warrant tagging vitiligo patients against further auditory damage by the use of ototoxic drugs like aminoglycosides