Hearing loss assessment by pure tone audiometry amongst the survivors of intensive care unit: A prospective observational cohort study.

PURPOSE: To assess hearing deficits (HD) through pure tone audiometry (PTA), amongst the survivors of intensive care unit (ICU).

METHODS

In this prospective observational study, ICU survivors aged 18 years and above were subjected to PTA and were classified into two groups based on PTA findings as those "with HD" and "without HD". Demographic and clinical factors were compared between these groups with a p-value of ≤0.05 considered as significant.

RESULTS

One hundred and two survivors were enrolled with a median age of 25.5 years (23-30.5), and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE II) score of 19 (14-22). Sixty were diagnosed (58.89 %) with HD based on PTA, and forty-two (41.2 %) without HD. More than 80 % of the survivors (52/60) had sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Propensity match analysis, after the exact matching of the APACHE-II score between those "with HD" and "without HD", revealed that patients with HD had a longer duration of shock days (mean ± SD) (0.96 ± 1.24 vs 1.68 ± 1.28; p value: 0.022), received higher maximum noradrenaline dose (0.03 v/s 0.06 μg/kg/min; p value: 0.004), longer duration of endotracheal tube (2.04 ± 1.17 vs 3.52 ± 2.06) days; p value:0.009), more days on mechanical ventilation (2.24 ± 1.33 vs 4.44 ± 5.12; p value: 0.011), and length of stay in the ICU (7.2 ± 3.8 vs 9.24 ± 4.68; p value: 0.013) than those without HD.

CONCLUSIONS

Hearing deficits are present in majority of the survivors of critical illness and audiometric screening is recommended.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trials registry. India (CTRI/2022/01/039539) dated 18.01.2022. https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/login.php.