High incidence of King–Kopetzky syndrome in teachers

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Praveen C V, Butt T and Humphrey M

Princess Royal University Hospital, UK

: J Otol Rhinol

Abstract

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King-Kopetzky syndrome, also known as Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) or Obscure Auditory Dysfunction (OAD), is characterized by patients presenting with hearing loss, especially if there is background noise, but have normal hearing thresholds on pure tone audiometry. It accounts for nearly 10% of patients presenting to ENT clinics. Various studies have cited number of factors responsible for this condition such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, genetic predisposition etc. It is usually the partner who identifies the signs and advices seeking help from professions. Usually all the hearing thresholds are normal. The term King Kopetzky syndrome was coined by Hinchcliffe in 1992. We present here an audit of 61 patients who presented with history of hard of hearing but had normal pure tone audiometry. Because of absence of any abnormal audiometry findings, these groups of patients are difficult to deal with and pose diagnostic dilemma. We found that the condition was more prevalent in females and in teachers. Several patients had an abnormal speech audiometry with normal pure tone. A trial of hearing aid was accepted by six patients with abnormal speech audiometry and five patients were still using the hearing aids three years later despite a normal pure tone audio. Auditory processing disorder is a very common condition and all involved should be aware of the condition. We present here an audit of 61 patients, condition was more common in teachers and five of them were happy to use hearing aid despite normal hearing threshold.

Biography

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Praveen C V is presently working as Locum Consultant at Ashford & St Peters and Royal Surrey Hospitals. He has experience in Head and Neck Surgery, and Rhinology and management of skin cancers.