COVID-19 caused hearing loss

Purpose The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine if there is a potential link between COVID-19 infection and hearing loss. Methods The prospective study was conducted in the COVID Hospital Clinical Centre Nis, Serbia. We performed tonal audiometry and used a custom questionnaire and medical histories to determine the incidence of hearing loss in COVID-19 positive patients. Results There were 74 patients with COVID-19 that met the inclusion criteria of this study and they composed our experimental group. Fifty-four (73%) were men and 20 (27%) women. There were 30 (40.5%) patients with hearing loss. Seventeen patients had unilateral and 13 had bilateral hearing loss. Significant differences between hearing loss groups and control group were found across all age groups, but not at all frequencies. No important differences were found when unilateral hearing loss and bilateral hearing loss groups were compared. There were no significant differences in distributions of comorbidities between the patients with hearing loss and normal hearing patients. Conclusions We found that 30 (40.5%) of the COVID-19 positive patients had sensorineural type of hearing loss. Across all age groups, there were statistically significant differences in frequencies between the COVID-19 positive patients and the control group. There were no significant differences in distributions of comorbidities between the patients with hearing loss and normal hearing patients. Distribution of unilateral and bilateral hearing loss and audiogram types was also not significantly different between the age groups.

Automated summary

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the potential link between COVID-19 infection and hearing loss. The study found that 40.5% of COVID-19 positive patients experienced sensorineural hearing loss, with statistically significant differences in frequencies across all age groups. Distribution of comorbidities did not show significant differences between patients with hearing loss and those with normal hearing.