Profile of audiometric thresholds and tympanometric curve of elderly patients.

AIM: to analyze the audiological profile of elderly patients seen in a clinic from an audiology school clinic in the city of Belo Horizonte.

METHODS

we studied all the charts from the patients who underwent audiologic assessment from April of 2004 and August of 2007 in an audiology clinic in the city of Belo Horizonte.

RESULTS

We studied the 313 audiological tests from patients 60 years of age or over. The results from the audiological evaluations as to the type of hearing loss were: auditory thresholds within normal standards - 22.28%; sensorineural hearing loss - 60.62%; mixed hearing loss - 14.70%, conductive hearing loss - 2.40%. The level varied between normal and profound. As to the tympanometry, 83.22% had the type A curve, and the other types of curves obtained made up a total of 16.3%. The percentage of individuals who did not undergo the test was 0.48%. 1.76% of the patients who had unilateral hearing loss and 98.24% had bilateral hearing loss.

CONCLUSIONS

we found a greater prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss, and the degree of the loss varied from mild to profound, with a prevalence of the moderate degree.