Audiological implications of COVID-19: an integrative literature review

ABSTRACT

Purpose:

to survey the national and international literature on the impacts of the coronavirus infection on the auditory system.

Methods:

an integrative review with search in the BIREME, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sciences databases. Inclusion criteria: articles in Portuguese and English whose subject was the coronavirus infection and its effects on the auditory system. Exclusion criteria: information from books and/or chapters, letters to editors, review articles, experience reports. The search strategy was based on the following combined descriptors, respectively in Portuguese and English: “Infecções por coronavírus”, “Audição”, “Perda auditiva”, “Coronavirus infections”, “Hearing”, “Hearing Loss”.

Results:

out of 43 articles found, two approached the issue. The first study assessed 20 patients that tested positive for COVID-19, though asymptomatic, who underwent pure-tone threshold audiometry and otoacoustic emissions. A significant increase in the auditory thresholds at high frequencies and a smaller response amplitude in the transient evoked otoacoustic emissions of those who tested positive for COVID-19 were observed when compared to that of controls. The second study reported the case of an asymptomatic 35-year-old COVID-19 female patient, who complained of otalgia and tinnitus, after being contaminated. The pure-tone threshold audiometry and tympanometry indicated mild unilateral (right ear) conductive hearing loss, with a type B tympanometric curve on that side.

Conclusion:

the studies included in this review showed different consequences of COVID-19 on hearing, with possible impairments on the sensory and mechanical structures of the auditory system. The knowledge of COVID-19 is limited, and further studies on its real impact on the auditory system are necessary.

Keywords:
Coronavirus Infections; Hearing; Hearing Loss