Sensorineural Hearing Loss – Understand What Is Sensorineural Definition And The Sensorineural Deafness Causes
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) is a type of deafness in which the main cause lies in the vestibulocochlear nerve, the inner ear, or the central brain processing centers. Now a days it is very obvious disease and there are more than millions of patients worldwide suffering from Sensorineural deafness.
There are three types of Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) -
1) Mild,
2) Moderate,
3) Severe (including total deafness).
In mild SNHL the patient feels slight pain in his/her ears and sometimes blurred reception of the sound. In moderate SNHL the pain is very obvious and most of the time speech can’t be understood. While in the severe one the person becomes totally deaf and unbearable pain occurs. In most of the cases it starts from mild symptoms and if we can’t find it then it goes moderate and if we again ignore it then it becomes severe and then complete deafness can occur.
Sensorineural Deafness
Mostly, Sensorineural deafness is due to the abnormalities in the hair cells of the organ of Corti in the cochlea. Some very bizarre cases will involve the eighth cranial nerve (the vestibulocochlear nerve) or the brain’s auditory parts. In the rare cases, only the auditory centres of the brain are affected and the sounds may be heard at normal thresholds but with distorted perception, so the patient can’t understand the speech clearly resulting in Sensorineural hearing impairment
The vestibulocochlear nerve (also known as the auditory or acoustic nerve) is the eighth of twelve cranial nerves, and is responsible for transmitting sound and equilibrium (balance) information from the inner ear to the brain. The acoustic nerve is derived from the embryonic otic placode…WikipediaThe most common Sensorineural deafness causes are the poor ability of the hair cell to function. This may already be abnormal from the time of birth, or damaged due to external events in the lifetime. External events include noise trauma, infection and intrinsic abnormalities such as Sensorineural deafness genes.
The abnormalities in the central auditory system of the brain are termed as “Central Hearing Impairment”. This impairment can also be caused by the prolonged exposure to very loud noise. For instance, wearing headphones set to high volumes for a long time or working in a loud workplace without any hearing aid, etc.
Therefore, Sensorineural Hearing Loss can be congenital or acquired.
Below list the congenital Sensorineural deafness causes
1) Lack of development of the cochlea.
2) Chromosomal Syndromes (but this case is very rare)
3) Delayed Familial Progressive may be one of the reason.
4) Congenital cholesteatoma is very profound.
Below list the acquired Sensorineural deafness causes
1) Inflammatory – It includes suppurative labyrinthitis, meningitis, mumps, measles, etc.
2) Ototoxic drugs – It includes Aminoglycosides, Loop diuretics, antimetabolites and salicylates.
3) Physical Trauma – the shearing injury or the fracture of the temporal bone which affects the cochlea and middle ear.
4) Noise Induced – the permissible noise limit is about 80 decibels, if the prolonged habit of listening sound at frequencies greater than 90 decibels persists then this impairment starts.
It is necessary to understand how Genetic Impairment impacts the hearing ability. In genetic impairment both dominant and recessive genes exist. This can be the reason of mild to severe impairment. If the family is suffering from dominant genes then it will go on for generations and even a single parent suffering from this is sufficient to pass this impairment gene to the offspring. But if its a recessive gene then the chances of this impairment in the off springs are not necessary. Both dominant and recessive hearing impairments may be syndrome or non-syndrome.
Tests for Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) usually include the Weber Test – the tuning fork is touched in the middle of the forehead and in the people with this symptom it is localized to the normal ears.
Treatment of Sensorineural Deafness -
In the previous days, Sensorineural Deafness was treated with the hearing aids. The hearing aids can increase the frequencies range to overcome a sensorineural hearing loss that exists in the range.
Alternative Treatment for Sensorineural hearing impairment. Some researchers believe that Idebenone plus vitamin E may help delay the hearing impairment or can even reverse it. It is not proven to date yet. Doctors may also prescribe steroids (suggested by some audiologists and ENTs) to help reverse the hearing impairment process. Just the vitamin E approach, it is not proven to date too.
Sensorineural Deafness Causes might be due to Genetic
If Sensorineural deafness causes are due to genetic, then there is really nothing much that can be done.
However, if it is due to our daily habits that trigger the hearing impairment, then we should do a rain check and be aware of those habits that should be changed.
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