Creator: Dr. B Vageesh Padiyar
Published: 2020-08-13T04:30:03-04:00

Patient's Query

Hello doctor,

I suffer from sensorineural hearing loss in both my ears for nine months. I had a mild hearing loss that got worse over the winter with ear infections. As a result, my hearing got worse, and I need to get hearing aids. I also have tinnitus in my left ear. Also, I have fluid in my mastoid air cells. Will ear tubes help me with my hearing and overall?

Answered by Dr. B Vageesh Padiyar

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Hearing in all of us is defined by a conductive component and sensorineural component. Anything to do with the nerve and transmission of nerve impulses is termed sensorineural and in most cases the damage is irreversible.

Anything interfering with the conduction of sound is considered to be conductive and there could be plenty of listed reasons from wax to fixed ossicles.

Now coming to your case, if you have been priorly diagnosed with a sensorineural hearing loss (snhl) via means of pure tone audiometry and in addition if your middle ear compartment and cleft are accumulated with fluid probably due to eustachian tube catarrh the improvement in hearing after insertion of tubes is going to be somewhere between 20 to 30 % and not more, considering there is a probable moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss present.

Hearing aids are definitely going to help when a sensorineural component is moderately or severely involved. In profound snhl, the hearing aids are not much of a benefit and in such a case cochlear implants are the devices of choice.

I hope this helps.

Patient's Query

Hi doctor,

Thank you for your kind help.

Answered by Dr. B Vageesh Padiyar

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

Your most welcome. Keep in touch for further doubts.

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