Relevance of Vascular Disorders to Audiological Findings

Abstract

Audiologic studies are reported on a group of patients who had diagnoses of vascular disorders. Practical hearing dysfunction did not appear to be of major consideration among these patients unless a dramatic accident occurred in the local area of the end-organ. The results of testing for site of lesion among those patients who showed little practical hearing loss were characteristic of cochlear lesions, with a few exceptions. Tests for site of lesion on the patients who showed sensitivity losses resulted in responses that were more consistent with the degree of loss. Some evidence is presented to support the thought that damage to the basilar-vertebral system may not significantly impair collateral blood flow in the nearby cochlea, while damage to the carotid, subclavian, and cardiac systems may limit compensatory flow severely. For a separate group of patients, also diagnosed as vascular cases, who reported sudden onset of hearing loss, results of repeated tests of site of lesion showed combinations of responses that were characteristic of both cochlear and retrocochlear lesions.