Sensorineural hearing loss linked to children with sickle cell disease: Study
Researchers have recently reported increased prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in the pediatric sickle cell disease population. The findings have been published in The Laryngoscope.
The pathophysiology of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in children with sickle cell disease is currently thought to be due to microvascular occlusion incidents that compromise oxygenation through the labyrinthine artery to the cochlea.3 Ischemia of the highly metabolic cochlea and Organ of Corti results in decreased oxygenation of the stria vascularis and thus a failure to maintain the electrochemical gradient of endolymph, which is crucial to the inner and outer hair cell function.
Researchers sought to determine the prevalence of Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) attributable to Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in the global pediatric population and to identify factors contributing to its severity.
Few scientific articles explored the link between SCD and hearing loss. One review article published by Donegan and colleagues in 1982 attempted to characterize these manifestations and found a few case reports and series of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in SCD patients. More recently, in 2012, another review article by Abou-Elhamd and colleagues with a similar question also found reports of increased prevalence of SNHL among pediatric patients with different studies from various parts of the world demonstrating reported rates between 8% and 60%.
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