Hearing loss
Otitis in infancy may affect hearing for years
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Infection of the middle ear compartment, called otitis media, in babies can affect the way their brains process sounds years after the initial infection, according to a recent report from India.
Infancy is a time when the brain rapidly develops the ability to sort out and respond to input from the five senses. If these external stimuli are blunted or absent, however, the appropriate brain development can be impaired.
Even otitis media of a short duration “in the first year of life can cause long-standing auditory processing deficits,” Sandeep Maruthy from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing in Mysore told Reuters Health.
Over-the-counter eardrops may cause hearing loss or damage
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A new study, led by researchers at The Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) of the MUHC, has revealed that certain over-the-counter earwax softeners can cause severe inflammation and damage to the eardrum and inner ear. The results of the study, recently published in The Laryngoscope, suggest that use of these medications should be discouraged.
“Patients often complain that wax is blocking their ears and is causing discomfort and sometimes deafness,” says Dr. Sam Daniel principal investigator of the study and director of McGill Auditory Sciences Laboratory at The Children’s. “Over-the-counter earwax softeners are used to breakup and disperse this excess wax. However, the effects of these medications on the cells of the ear had not been thoroughly analyzed.”
“Because some of these products are readily available to the public without a consultation with or prescription from a physician, it is important to make sure they are safe to use. Our study shows that in a well-established animal model, one such product, Cerumenex, is in fact, toxic to the cells of the ear,” says Dr. Daniel.
