assessment of hearing ability in patients after head and neck cancer radiotherapy

Introduction: the study assesses radiation-induced sensorineural hearing loss (snhl) in head and neck cancer patients, highlighting the common occurrence of snhl as a significant side effect of radiation therapy (rt) targeting the cochlea and acoustic pathways.material and methods: the study included 34 patients (22 men, 12 women, mean age 40.13 ± 26.8 years) with head and neck cancers undergoing three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3d-crt); 16 also had chemoradiotherapy (crt). pure-tone audiometry (pta: 250-8000 hz) was done before, immediately after, and three months post-rt for all patients. hearing impairment was evaluated using the ctcae 4.03 scoring system.results: according to the findings, 19% and 37% of ears experienced snhl immediately post-rt and 3 months after rt, respectively. the mean cochlear dose was 25.48 ± 13.56 gy. a significant correlation existed between the cochlear dose and snhl incidence (p-value < 0.05). regression analysis indicated the mean cochlear dose as a robust predictor of snhl, particularly at 8000 hz (β = 0.570, p-value = 0.0001). highest snhl incidence at 8000 hz, 3 months post-rt. a significant difference in snhl threshold was observed between men and women at the frequency of 1000 hz (p-value = 0.024). there was a statistically significant difference in snhl thresholds between patients who underwent crt versus those treated with rt alone (p-value < 0.05).conclusion: rt commonly causes snhl in head and neck cancer patients. mean cochlear dose predicts snhl, especially at higher frequencies.