THE DEVELOPMENT OF SENSORINEURAL HEARING LOSS IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19: A CASES REPORT AND REVIEW

Аннотация

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in China in December 2019 and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020.  Reported symptoms were cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, and olfactory dysfunction and all these clinical symptoms were widely described in modern literature. In addition to olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction, SARS-CoV-2 infection can lead to neurological complications such as hearing loss, tinnitus, and/or dizziness. Despite extensive research, the mechanisms and duration of the diverse neurological symptoms of COVID-19 remain unclear, as do the pathogenesis that may underlie them. The aim of this study was evaluating and describe hearing disfunctions in post-Covid-19 patients. 24 patients were studied between March and August 2022. All patients were diagnosed with mild-to-moderate Covid-19, as confirmed by a PCR test. Recovered patients visited to the laryngologist on an outpatient basis 2-3 weeks after the disease with complaints of tinnitus and hearing impairment. The evaluation of the results was carried out taking into account the anamnesis of patients (subjective data) and otoscopy and audiometry data (objective data). It is noteworthy that the severity of the course of the coronavirus infection is not decisive in the development of disturbances in the sound-conducting function. That is, even with an asymptomatic course of COVID-19, the virus can adversely affect the hearing organ, leading to hearing loss and tinnitus.