Association between sensorineural hearing loss and complicated diabetes mellitus

Background: in low-resource areas like ours where complicated diabetes is on rise,sensory neural hearing loss (snhl) is commonly seen when it has caused disability. the available guidelines do not include screening for sensory neural hearing loss. objective: to determine the association between sensory neural hearing loss and complicated diabetes in patients presenting to tertiary care hospital. methods: this case control study was conducted in departments of ent of akhtar saeed medical college and central park medical college lahore over a period of six months from 26th march 2015 to 25th september 2015. two hundred and eighty six subjects were included. they were divided in two groups. one hundred and forty three cases with complicated diabetes and 143 controls with diabetes were included. complicated diabetes was labeled among patients already diagnosed diabetic patients since at least 1 year with fasting blood sugar greater than 7mmol/dl determined by laboratory method and having diabetic retinopathy or neuropathy or both at time of presentation. results: when compared case and control groups with sensory neural hearing loss the results came out significant (p value =0.001). 29 patients of case and 6 patients of control showed up with sensory neural hearing loss. odds ratio was 5.81. this association was strengthened by presence of retinopathy,young age,hba1c > 7%. there was no effect of hypertension on snhl. conclusion: there is no association between sensory neural hearing loss and complicated diabetes and accept the alternate hypothesis.