Diagnosis and evaluation of hearing loss

Hearing disorders are quite common in our days, not only due to congenital causes, environmental factors abut also due to the increased rate of diagnosis. Hearing loss is one of the commonest reasons to visit an ENT Department both in the clinic and in the acute setting. Approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing. One in eight people in the United States (13 percent, or 30 million) aged 12 years or older has hearing loss in both ears, based on standard hearing examinations. About 2 percent of adults aged 45 to 54 have disabling hearing loss. The rate increases to 8.5 percent for adults aged 55 to 64. Nearly 25 percent of those aged 65 to 74 and 50 percent of those who are 75 and older have disabling hearing loss. These figures depict the impact on patients' quality of life and the necessity for early and accurate diagnosis and treatment. It is important to mention that congenital hearing loss and deafness is also a condition that requires early diagnosis and hearing aiding in order to develop normal speech. Profound, early-onset deafness is present in 4-11 per 10,000 children, and is attributable to genetic causes in at least 50% of cases.