Profile of Sensorineural Hearing Loss in a Sub-Saharan Africa ENT Service

Introduction: Sensorineural hearing loss is linked to the impairment of the sensorineural structures of the hearing system. Sensorineural hearing loss is a topical subject hardly reported in African francophone medical literature.

Objectives: To analyze, through a literature review, the features of sensorineural hearing loss, in the context of a sub-Saharan country.

Methods: This is a retrospective study covering the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2010. We collected four hundred and twenty seven (427) cases of patients with sensorineural hearing loss. We also recorded the Epidemiological, clinical, functional exploration, morphological and therapeutic data.

Results: The average age of patients was 40. Children represented 19.20% (n = 82) of the series. The average age during diagnosis was 10 in children. The series included 231 men (54%) and 196 women (46%). The average time to consultation was 54 months. Unilateral deafness represented 10.54% of the cases. The average hearing loss predominated with a rate of 42.70%, representing 5.94% of deafness. The most common etiologies were presbycusis (29.27%), meningitis (5.15%), and malaria (4%). In 47.3% of cases the cause was unknown. Only 1.87% of our patients have received a hearing aid.

Conclusion: Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) poses etiological diagnosis problems as well as therapeutic management problems. Indeed etiological research and hearing rehabilitation are expensive. These difficulties could be overcome through the development of a program against deafness.