Does SARS-CoV-2 affect cochlear functions in children?

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the influence of coronavirus disease-19 )COVID-19( on cochlear tasks of children who had COVID-19 previously, and the relevance among disease seriousness and cochlear involvement by otoacoustic emissions )OAEs(. Methods:The study included 24 hospitalized children after COVID-19 diagnosis, 23 pediatrics that received outpatient treatment, and 21 children who were without COVID-19 diagnosis as the control group between June 2021 and July 2021. Transient evoked otoacoustic emission )TEOAE(, distortion product otoacoustic emission, and contrlateral suppression of otoacoustic emission measurements were carried out for each child. Symptoms of patients, the treatments they received, and the duration of hospitalization of the children in the hospitalized group were recorded. Results: The comparison of TEOAE test results under masking showed a considerable difference between Original Article3 groups at 1 kHz )p=0.033( and 4 kHz )p=0.021( frequencies )p<0.05(. Distortion product otoacoustic emission test results of hospitalized outpatient and control group showed a statistically significant difference at 2 kHz among themselves )p=0.009(. Conclusion:Our results suggest that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 may influence the medial olivocochlear system of children and have irreversible effects on the cochlear functions. Early detection of problems that may affect cochlear functions is a special critical task, especially in children, who are a particularly vulnerable group in terms of hearing and related speech problems.

The short-term effect of COVID-19 on the cochleovestibular system in pediatric patients

“…On the other hand, some studies claim that SARS-CoV-2 does not cause any damage to the cochleovestibular system [ 20 ]. Although there are a few studies that evaluate cochlear functions in the pediatric patient group, no study evaluating the vestibular system has been reported [ 13 , 21 , 22 ]. It has been reported that not only SARS-CoV-2 but also other viral infections can damage the cochleovestibular system by causing inflammation directly or through mediators [ 23 , 24 ].…”

“…In addition, MOC protects the inner ear from acoustic damage [ 30 ]. In a study conducted by Koca et al MOC functions of pediatric COVID-19 patients were measured with suppressed OAE and they reported that some frequencies of patients with COVID-19 were affected [ 21 ]. In this study, SNR measurements were performed in the suppressed OAE test to evaluate the efferent pathways.…”

Complicações audiovestibulares na COVID-19: uma revisão integrativa

“…No entanto, segundo Koca et al 25 , o SARS-CoV-2 pode influenciar o sistema MOC (fibras olivococleares mediais) de crianças e ter efeitos irreversíveis nas funções cocleares. Já no estudo de Ghiselli et al 24 , no primeiro teste auditivo realizado em recém-nascidos, foi observada perda auditiva unilateral em 10,5% dos bebês, entretanto os testes auditivos desses recém-nascidos mostraram-se normais no segundo teste realizado 15 dias depois, demonstrando que pode ocorrer uma remissão dos sintomas.…”