SENSORINEURAL HEARING-LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH AORTOCORONARY BYPASS-SURGERY - A PROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

A prospective, clinical study was undertaken to assess the relationshi p between aortocoronary by-pass surgery (ACBS) and sensorineural heari ng loss (SNHL). Between August 1, 1988 and July 31,1989, 1458 patients underwent ACBS and 181 volunteers were entered into the study based o n availability and capability to complete preoperative and postoperati ve questionnaires and audiometric testing. One hundred forty-five pati ents completed the study. Intraoperative audiant brainstem response (A BR) testing was performed on 7 patients with essentially normal hearin g. Although 4 patients (2.8%) reported a subjective change in hearing on postoperative questionnaires, objective testing did not confirm a s ignificant hearing change in pure-tone, speech discrimination, or spee ch reception threshold testing. Acute or sudden SNHL within 2 weeks fo llowing ACBS was not identified in any patient completing the study. T his study did not provide evidence to support a causal relationship be tween SNHL and ACBS. However, if SNHL does occur following ACBS, the w ell-established etiology of ototoxic therapy and subsequent SNHL deman ds exclusion in the absence of conflicting histopathologic information .