HEARING DISABILITY BEFORE AND AFTER RADIOTHERAPY FOR NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA

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.