Skip to main content
The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology
Download PDF
  • Original article
  • Open access
  • Published:

The effect of L-thyroxine hormone therapy on hearing loss in hypothyroid patients

The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology volume 33, pages 637–644 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this work was to study whether or not the hearing loss encountered in some hypothyroid patients can be improved with L-thyroxine hormone therapy, as other symptoms of hypothyroidism.

Study design

The study design was a prospective cohort one.

Patients and methods

This study included 30 patients of either sex who were proved to be in a hypothyroid state with an additional symptom of hearing impairment. The study was carried out in Alexandria Main University Hospital and was conducted in a prospective manner. All selected patients were proved to be in a hypothyroid state in the Endocrinology Department. Moreover, their symptom of hearing impairment was confirmed by thorough audiological examination supplemented by pure-tone audiometry plus tympanometry that was carried out in the ENT Department and the associate Audiology Unit. L-thyroxine treatment for hypothyroidism was initiated in all cases for 6 months to maintain a state of euthyroidism. At the end of 6 months, a repeat audiogram and tympanometry were performed in all patients in order to evaluate the efficacy of the said treatment protocol on the hearing in these patients. Cases proved to have hearing impairment irrelevant to the hypothyroid condition were excluded. Informed consent was compulsory for recruitment in this study.

Results

Post-treatment assessment revealed that variable improvement was achieved in 48% of ears, whereas 52% did not respond to the given treatment, with the impairment remaining nearly the same as it was before. Of the improved ears, in 15% of ears hearing levels were restored to normal hearing levels. Thereby, adherence to replacement therapy may reverse the hearing deficits in a few number of hypothyroid patients.

Conclusion

There is a definitive improvement in hearing with the use of L-thyroxine treatment of hypothyroid patients with hearing impairment.

References

  1. Kemp WR. Deafness in myxoedema. Br Med J 1907; 1:375.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Morgan JM, McCaffrey T. Head and neck manifestations of endocrine disease In: Gleeson M, editor. Scott -Brown’s otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery. London: Hodder Arnold 2008. p. 400.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Parving A, Parving HH, Lyngsøe J. Hearing sensitivity in patients with myxoedema before and after treatment with L-thyroxine. Acta Otolaryngol 1983; 95:315–321.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Parving A, Ostri B, Bretlau P, et al. Audiological and temporal bone findings in myxoedema Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 1986; 95:278–283.

  5. Brenner M, Hoistad DL, Hain TC. Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in patients with Meniere’s disease Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2004; 130:226–228.

  6. Ben-Tovim R, Zohar Y, Laurian N, et al. Auditory brainstem response in experimentally induced hypothyroidism in albino rats Laryngoscope 1985; 95:982–986.

  7. Vanasse M, Fisher C, Berthezene F, et al. Normal auditory evoked potentials in adult hypothyroidism Laryngoscope 1989; 99:302–306.

  8. Sachdev Y, Hall R. Effusions into body cavities in hypothyroidism Lancet 1975; 1:564–565.

  9. Van’t Hoff W, Sturat DW. Deafness in myxoedema QJM 1979; 48:361–367.

  10. Rubinstein M, Perlstein TP, Hildesheimer M. Cochlear action potentials in experimentally induced hypothyroidism in guinea pigs Acta Otolaryngol 1975; 79(Suppl 331):1–10.

  11. Howarth F, Lloyd HE. Perceptive deafness in hypothyroidism Br Med J 1956; 1:431–433.

  12. Ritter FN The effects of hypothyroidism upon the ear, nose and throat. A clinical and experimental study. Laryngoscope 1967; 77:1427–1479.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Post JT. Hypothyroid deafness. A clinical study of sensorineural deafness associated with hypothyroidism. Laryngoscope 1964: 74:221–232.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. DeVos JA. Deafness in hypothyroidism. J Laryngol Otol 1963; 77:390–414.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Arduç A, Isık S, Allusoglu S, et al. Does acquired hypothyroidism affect the hearing functions? Turk J Endocrinol Metab 2015; 19:124–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Malik V, Shukla GK, Bhatia N. Hearing profile in hypothyroidism. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2002; 54:285–290.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Santos KT, Dias NH, Mazeto GM, et al. Audiologic evaluation in patients with acquired hypothyroidism. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol 2010; 76:478–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Geslin LL, Santos SD, Hassani Y, et al. Factors associated with hearing impairment in patients with congenital hypothyroidism treated since the neonatal period: anational population based study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2013: 98:3644–3652.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Thornton AR, Jarvis SJ. Auditory brainstem response findings in hypothyroid and hyperthyroid disease. Clin Neurophysiol 2008; 119:786–790.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Fang Q, Giordimaina AM, Dolan DF, et al. Genetic background of Prop1(df) mutants provides remarkable protection against hypothyroidism-induced hearing impairment. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2012; 13:173–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Anand VT, Mann SB, Dash RJ, et al. Auditory investigations in hypothyroidism. Acta Otolaryngol 1989; 108:83–87.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Dokianakis G, Ferekidis E, Pantazopoulos P. Hearing loss and hyperthyroidism. Arch Otorhinolaryngol 1978; 219:351–353.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Karakuş CF, Altuntaş EE, Kılıçlı F, et al. Is sensorineural hearing loss related with thyroid metabolism disorders Indian J Otol 2015; 21:138–143.

  24. Di Lorenzo L, Foggia L, Panza N, et al. Auditory brainstem responses in thyroid diseases before and after therapy. Horm Res 1995; 43:200–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt

    Mohammed M. Hussein & Ahmed M. Mohammed

  2. Department of Audiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt

    Samir I. Asal (Assisstant Professor)

  3. Department of Endocrinology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt

    Tarek M. Salem

Authors
  1. Mohammed M. Hussein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Samir I. Asal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tarek M. Salem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ahmed M. Mohammed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samir I. Asal.

Additional information

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Rights and permissions

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hussein, M.M., Asal, S.I., Salem, T.M. et al. The effect of L-thyroxine hormone therapy on hearing loss in hypothyroid patients. Egypt J Otolaryngol 33, 637–644 (2017). https://doi.org/10.4103/ejo.ejo_25_17

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/ejo.ejo_25_17

Keywords