Sensorineural hearing loss in patients with diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to find cause effect relationship between diabetes and sensorineural hearing loss. Hearing threshold of 70 diabetic patients and 70 healthy controls were determined using pure tone audiometry at Al Yarmouk Teaching hospital. Their ages ranged between [9-45] years old. The patients were categorized into groups according to their age, the duration of disease, complications, control and type of diabetes. These observations were compared with those from the control subjects using appropriate statistical methods. The results of the study revealed that mean hearing threshold was worse in diabetic patients than control subjects. All age groups with diabetes showed significant low and high frequency hearing loss as compared to those who were well controlled. The threshold was worse in complicated diabetics than in non complicated diabetics. Diabetics with longer duration shows worse threshold than others. However, threshold was better in patients with good control of diabetes and there were no differences in threshold between insulin and non insulin dependent diabetes. It was found that diabetics had a poorer hearing threshold which was seen in all age groups, and there was a relationship between the duration, control and complications of diabetes and the level of hearing loss. No significant difference in hearing loss was found between insulin-dependent and non-insulin dependent diabetics