Hearing loss.

For physicians treating patients with sensorineural hearing loss, therapy is directed more toward helping the patient cope with the loss of hearing rather than offering various medical or surgical interventions. Accordingly, for the patient with sensorineural hearing loss, the care plan is usually more directed toward palliation than toward cure. This article views hearing loss not only as a physiologic deficit, but as the loss of an important aspect of overall communication skill that can have far reaching emotional and psychologic effects on the patient, the family, and those who surround patients in their daily lives. In this article the authors offer strategies for managing the patient who is losing or who has lost hearing.