Please explain my hearing problem from the audiogram report.

Question

Hi doctor,

I am 24 years old. I am having trouble with my left ear hearing. But, I never took much care to sort it. Lately, I found it is little awkward. I am having an old audiogram result with me. Please look through it and tell your advice.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

You have an almost nil hearing in the left ear (attachment removed to protect patient identity). Your right ear is normal. So, all your hearing is through right ear and problem you already have is difficulty in localizing speech other than hearing loss. Unilateral hearing loss has many causes and need to be evaluated. You need to visit an otologist to get ear checkup. He will ask you a history of dizziness and abnormal sounds in the ear. Your face will also be examined for any deviation. History of onset either suddenly or slowly progressive helps in finding the cause as sudden onset is usually idiopathic and has a poor prognosis. In any scenario, you have to get MRI brain (contrast) to look for CP - cerebellopontine angle and 8th nerve complex (vestibulocochlear nerve) as you have got sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss means your hearing nerve is not working and we get an MRI to check whether it is the nerve only to get affected or there is anything wrong behind it, especially in the brain or CP angle. Around 3% to 10% cases have been diagnosed to have vestibular nerve shwannoma (benign tumor in eighth nerve), which can be treated if diagnosed early.