Wk. Low et al., HEARING DISABILITY BEFORE AND AFTER RADIOTHERAPY FOR NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA, Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 110(2), 1996, pp. 121-123
This paper evaluates post-irradiation hearing changes in patients with
nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) from a disability orientated approach,
which takes into account binaural hearing. Newly diagnosed patients w
ith NPC were studied before radiotherapy, and at four to 12 months (me
an 9.2 months) after radiotherapy, provided they remained disease-free
. Each patient was examined clinically and with pure tone audiograms.
Tympanometry was used to confirm middle ear effusion. Averaged hearing
thresholds over 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz were evaluated. If abnormal (>30 dB)
, the resultant hearing disability was illustrated by a modified Glasg
ow Plot. Twenty-three males and 10 females completed the study. Middle
ear effusions resulted in 39.3 per cent (binaural in two patients) an
d 33.3 per cent (binaural in five patients) of patients having hearing
disability pre- and post-irradiation respectively. No patient had hea
ring disability as a result of a sensorineural loss. It is recommended
that future reporting of post-irradiation hearing changes in patients
with NPC, as in middle ear surgery, be considered from a disability-o
rientated approach.