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In addition to problems with the senses of smell and taste, coronavirus patients may also have a hearing impairment so they cannot hear high tones, according to an extensive study conducted by experts at the Center’s Ear, Throat and Nose Clinic. Nis Clinic.
Hearing tests in patients with COVID-19 were performed in the so-called red zone, with moderate to severe patients suffering from this dangerous infectious disease, and the results confirmed the suspicions of Nis doctors.
– Even at the beginning of the pandemic, data came from China that kovid-19 in contact with the nasal mucosa leads to the loss of the sense of smell, and then from Italy, that there is an alteration of the sense of taste. Therefore, at the board of the ENT clinic we decided to examine whether the auditory nerve is a possible target of kovid-19 attack, because if it damages the sense of smell and taste, it was logical that we would check this as well. The interrogation in the red zone of the Kovid hospital lasted several weeks. We inserted an audiometer, examined about 100 moderate and severe patients, and found the presence of sensorineural hearing damage in nearly 50 percent of cases. Mild to moderate hearing loss has been demonstrated at high frequencies of 4,000 and 8,000 Hertz. This does not significantly alter the patient’s hearing in the speech phase, but it does alter the quality of hearing because at these high tones these patients are impaired. They can practically not hear the high tones – the director of the ENT clinic, prof. Dr. Dusan Milisavljevic.
He states that the pathogenesis of hearing impairment in kovid-19 is still in doubt, but that two theories are being tested.
– The first is that hearing damage occurs due to lack of oxygen in the inner ear and in that auditory system, since the virus binds to hemoglobin and the erythrocytes cannot carry enough oxygen to the inner ear and the brain. Since Covid-19 has been shown to produce microthrombi, another theory is that there is a potential for a small microthrombus to break off and reach the inner ear, which can reduce blood flow and nutrition to the auditory nerve, and thus , cause mild hearing loss. . These are the two theories we are considering. We ruled out the ototoxicity of the drugs because our patients were not receiving pronounced ototoxic therapy. In the second wave, patients received little chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which are potentially ototoxic, so we ruled out the possibility that the drug could have led to hearing loss, says Prof. Dr. Milisavljevic.
Soon in the application of therapy
Milisavljevic says that in the second phase of the examination, the focus will be on the application of an appropriate therapy for hearing impairment in patients with covid-19.
– We invite all citizens who have had a crown and have tinnitus and hearing loss to contact the ENT clinic in Nis to perform a control hearing test and initiate a type of therapy directed to the inner ear and the nerve auditory. In most cases, I can freely say that even in two-thirds, hearing spontaneously normalized after a few weeks of leaving the Kovid hospital in mild forms of hearing loss. Therapy with corticosteroid preparations, which are given to patients in large doses, also contributed to this. It certainly had a positive effect on both the sense of hearing and the auditory nerve, because we also based our therapy for the sense of hearing on corticosteroid therapy, which has the effect of reducing swelling in the inner ear. It occurs in various parts of the inner ear, and this therapy can certainly lead to a reduction in that swelling, says prof. Dr. Milisavljevic for “Blic”.
Video: Why do we lose our sense of taste when we get infected with the corona virus?
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