I fell and landed on the right side of my head. How did it cause hearing loss in the left ear?

Question

Hello doctor,

I suffered a traumatic brain injury (close head skull fracture). I fell from a height of 15 feet and landed on the right side of my head, resulting in a sensorineural and conductive hearing loss on the right and strictly sensorineural hearing loss on the left. It also caused tinnitus in both ears. When there was no direct impact on the left, what has caused the sensorineural hearing loss in the left ear?

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Thanks for briefing about the problem in concern. You would have probably developed a temporal bone fracture due to the fall. Temporal bone fractures are divided into longitudinal and transverse as per an old classification and otic capsule sparing or involving in the new classification. The sensorineural loss in the left side could be due to a transmitted trauma fracture line involving the left otic capsule. A mixed hearing loss in the right ear could be due to the hemotympanum (blood collection in th middle ear) causing conductive hearing loss. And sensorineural hearing loss could be due to the transverse fracture involving the left otic capsule The hearing does improve, but it takes months or sometimes years, and usually, the hearing is never normal. Tinnitus does persist for life in most cases due to underlying sensorineural deficit. You might also observe transient vertigo in one particular posture, and this could be due to post-traumatic benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. You might require rehabilitation exercises and few medications to bring down those attacks, if any. Hemotympanum will take at least two to three months to get absorbed completely, and with that, your conductive component should improve with time. I hope this answers your query. If there is anything more that you need to enquire about, kindly let me know, and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Warm regards.