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The association between obstructive sleep apnea and hearing loss: a cross-sectional analysis

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To determine if sleep apnea had significant effects on hearing functions and to investigate the polysomnography parameters that might be associated with hearing impairment in sleep apnea patients.

Methods

We included 120 patients who were admitted to sleep disorders outpatient clinic. We constituted four groups by reference to the apnea–hypopnea index (including control group), and compared the audiometric parameters of the groups. Additionally, we investigated the correlation of apnea–hypopnea index, desaturation index and min. oxygen saturations with pure-tone thresholds, speech recognition thresholds and speech discrimination scores.

Results

The median pure-tone thresholds at 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 mHz, the median speech recognition thresholds and the median speech discrimination scores on both ears did significantly differ among four groups (p < 0.001). Moderate sleep apnea affected high-frequency hearing functions and speech discrimination scores, and severe sleep apnea had significant effects on all hearing functions. Pure-tone thresholds and speech recognition thresholds on the both ears were positively correlated with apnea–hypopnea index and desaturation index, and negatively correlated with min. oxygen saturation (p < 0.001). Speech discrimination scores on the both ears were negatively correlated with apnea–hypopnea index and desaturation index, and positively correlated with min. oxygen saturation (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) had several effects on hearing, and hearing impairment might be associated with the severity of OSA. Moderate OSA affected high-frequency hearing functions and severe OSA affected all hearing functions negatively.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ENT Department, Faculty of Medicine, Aksaray University, 68100, Aksaray, Turkey

    Serkan Kayabasi

  2. ENT Department, A. Ilhan Ozdemir Education and Research Hospital, Giresun University, 28100, Giresun, Turkey

    Omer Hizli

  3. ENT Department, Faculty of Medicine, Giresun University, 28100, Giresun, Turkey

    Guven Yildirim

Authors
  1. Serkan Kayabasi
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  2. Omer Hizli
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  3. Guven Yildirim
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Contributions

SK: designed study, collected and analyzed data, supervised study. ÖH: collected and analyzed data, made statistics, wrote article. GY: analyzed data, supervised study, revised article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omer Hizli.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. This study was approved by the local ethic committee (IRB number: 01-07) and informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kayabasi, S., Hizli, O. & Yildirim, G. The association between obstructive sleep apnea and hearing loss: a cross-sectional analysis. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 276, 2215–2221 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05468-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05468-8

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