Assessment of hearing loss in temporal bone fractures

Abstract

Introduction: Thirty percent to seventy percent of skull fractures in adult head trauma patients is due to temporal bone fractures and is caused due to road traffic accidents (RTAs). Temporal bone fractures are more commonly associated with hearing loss. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the type and the amount of hearing loss in temporal bone fractures. Methodology: A 3-month retrospective study was conducted at the department of ear, nose, and throat in a tertiary care center. Fifty patients, diagnosed as cases of temporal bone fractures with hearing loss were included in the study. The patients with temporal bone fractures were categorized into two groups-otic-capsule sparing (OCS) and otic-capsule violating (OCV) fractures, and hearing loss was evaluated with Pure tone audiogram (PTA). Results: OCS fractures were more common (64%) than OCV. Conductive type of hearing loss was commonly associated with OCS, whereas sensorineural hearing loss was more common in OCV fractures. The average degree of hearing loss ranged from 20 to 68 db. The correlation was statistically significant for temporal bone fractures (OCS and OCV) with respect to hearing loss (P < 0.00001). Other complications such as external auditory canal filled with blood, perforation of tympanic membrane, and hemotympanum were also observed in our study. Conclusion: Temporal bone fractures are most commonly due to RTAs and are frequently associated with severe brain injury. Classifying temporal bone fractures as OCS and OCV fractures correlates well with the severity of hearing loss, and conductive hearing loss was the most common type hearing loss.