Associated Health Issues of Patients with Acquired Unilateral Hearing Loss

Abstract

Patients with unilateral hearing loss have impaired hearing of sounds coming from the affected side, decreased comprehension of speech in noisy environments, and lack of sound localization. There are many conditions that can induce unilateral hearing loss, but idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL) is thought to be most notable because of its high incidence. Patients with ISSHL suddenly acquire unilateral hearing loss; therefore, there are additional significant health problems that complicate the abovementioned symptoms due to the characteristic clinical course of ISSHL including hearing-related discomfort, tinnitus, and anxiety. It has been reported that hearing-related discomfort is closely associated with patients' quality of life. In this chapter, the associated health issues of patients with ISSHL are described, and the interventions employed for patients with unilateral hearing loss are evaluated for their potential in improving the lives of ISSHL patients.

Hearing rehabilitation of children and adolescents with unilateral hearing loss

“…In the future, it would also be necessary that the Brazilian Public Services attempt to unify the assessment methods so that the conducts can be defined more properly and at an earlier stage (6) . Also, partnerships with HA companies would be a good possibility for these services in a way that the devices such as the HA, the CROS and FM system could be loaned for household testing and thus assist the healthcare professionals in decision-making (19) .…”

“…New research has evidenced that among the consequences of UHL in the infant population, risk to language development has been highlighted as speech problems (3) , school difficulties (4,5) , limitations in communicative activities, especially in noisy environments (6) , and difficulty in sound localization (1,7) have been shown in children with UHL, all of which may potentially harm language development. The implications of UHL can even go beyond those related to hearing-and language-disorders, interfering with the quality of life (8) or even the intelligence scores (9) of these children.…”