AbstractAim: The aim of the present study was to find the prevalence and risk factors associated with sensorineuralhearing loss in patients with systemic hypertension.Material & methods: A cross-sectional study conducted during the period of 18 months aimed at finding outthe prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss and the risk factors related to hearing impairment among systemichypertensives in Department of ENT. 100 patients attending the outpatient Department of ENT, meeting theinclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study.Results: Maximum participants were in the 56-60 age group (47%). Female participants predominated in ourstudy (66%). When right ear and left ear were studied separately, 35 patients (35%) had sensorineural hearingloss in the right ear, whereas 33 patients (33%) had sensorineural hearing loss in left ear. When hearingthresholds at individual frequencies were noted, in the right ear 42 patients (42%) had hearing loss at 250 Hz, 34patients (34%) had hearing loss at 500 Hz. Similarly, in the left ear, 37 patients (37%) had hearing loss at 250Hz, 33 patients (33%) had hearing loss at 500 Hz. The patients in 55-60 age group had a higher incidence ofhearing loss when compared to the remaining study population. In our study we found that increasing age is arisk factor for sensorineural hearing loss in hypertensives. We studied whether duration of hypertension has anybearing on the development of sensorineural hearing loss and found out that patients with more than 10 yearsduration of hypertension had the highest prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss.Conclusion: Sensorineural hearing loss has a high prevalence among patients with systemic hypertension.Hence, a pure tone audiometry should be done routinely in all hypertensives, particularly in elderly patients withlong standing systemic hypertension. Periodic audiological assessment should be incorporated in them to startrehabilitation as early as possible. Early diagnosis of systemic hypertension in the community and initiation oftreatment can help to further hinder the progression of microvascular disease that leads to target organ damage.

AbstractAim: The aim of the present study was to find the prevalence and risk factors associated with sensorineuralhearing loss in patients with systemic hypertension.Material & methods: A cross-sectional study conducted during the period of 18 months aimed at finding outthe prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss and the risk factors related to hearing impairment among systemichypertensives in Department of ENT. 100 patients attending the outpatient Department of ENT, meeting theinclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study.Results: Maximum participants were in the 56-60 age group (47%). Female participants predominated in ourstudy (66%). When right ear and left ear were studied separately, 35 patients (35%) had sensorineural hearingloss in the right ear, whereas 33 patients (33%) had sensorineural hearing loss in left ear. When hearingthresholds at individual frequencies were noted, in the right ear 42 patients (42%) had hearing loss at 250 Hz, 34patients (34%) had hearing loss at 500 Hz. Similarly, in the left ear, 37 patients (37%) had hearing loss at 250Hz, 33 patients (33%) had hearing loss at 500 Hz. The patients in 55-60 age group had a higher incidence ofhearing loss when compared to the remaining study population. In our study we found that increasing age is arisk factor for sensorineural hearing loss in hypertensives. We studied whether duration of hypertension has anybearing on the development of sensorineural hearing loss and found out that patients with more than 10 yearsduration of hypertension had the highest prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss.Conclusion: Sensorineural hearing loss has a high prevalence among patients with systemic hypertension.Hence, a pure tone audiometry should be done routinely in all hypertensives, particularly in elderly patients withlong standing systemic hypertension. Periodic audiological assessment should be incorporated in them to startrehabilitation as early as possible. Early diagnosis of systemic hypertension in the community and initiation oftreatment can help to further hinder the progression of microvascular disease that leads to target organ damage.