Sensorineural hearing loss in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Karmody, Collin S.; Valdez, Tulio A.; Desai, Urmen; Blevins, Nikolas H.

doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2008.04.009

« Previous Next »American Journal of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Medicine and Surgery
Volume 30, Issue 3 , Pages 166-170, May 2009

Sensorineural hearing loss in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Washington, DC, September 2000.

Collin S. Karmody, MD
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, 750 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA. Tel.: +1 508 888 3101; fax: +1 617 636 1479.
Tulio A. Valdez, MD
- Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA
Urmen Desai, MD
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
Nikolas H. Blevins, MD
- Department of Otolaryngology, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA

Received 11 October 2007 published online 02 October 2008.

Abstract

Objective

The study aimed to discuss the association between sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Methods

We reviewed cases of patients with known IBD seen in an otolaryngology practice with documentation of all otologic data including age of onset, family history of otologic problems, exposure to noise, audiometric findings, and so on.

Results

Of 38 patients with a history of IBD, 22 had documented SNHL. Nineteen of these had no other identifiable etiology for their inner ear dysfunction. Fourteen of these patients had a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and 5 had Crohn disease. Sixteen patients had bilateral SNHL, and 3 patients had unilateral SNHL. Only one patient had a lasting response of SNHL to medical treatment.

Conclusion

This review suggests that SNHL is an extraintestinal association of IBD. As IBD is considered to be a local or systemic immunopathy, the associated SNHL might also be an expression of systemic immune dysfunction.