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Audiology results - unsure what they mean

FPS01

My partner has been under ENT and audiology for many years as he has total hearing loss (so we understand) in one ear and reduced hearing in the other, for which he wears a hearing aid. At his appointment today he was given a copy of his most recent audiology results and neither of us can understand it! We’d be really grateful for some help in interpreting what this actually means and what level of hearing loss has occurred. I’m not sure if age makes any difference but he is 32. Thank you

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Comments

CockneyRebel

Hi and welcome

We cannot give medical advice on the forum and I suspect that you will need an audiologist to interpret this for you

CR

FPS01

Hi - sorry, I thought I posted this in the “ask an audiologist” section? Thank you

VickiKirwin

Hi FPS01

The picture at the bottom shows an audiogram - that is a chart that the audiologist has plotted the hearing test onto. The crosses are results for the left ear and circles are results for the right ear. Quiet sounds are at the top of the page and loud sounds at the bottom, with low pitch sounds on the left of the chart and high pitch sounds on the right of the chart. Any result at 20 or less is within the normal range of hearing. Basically the graphs confirm what you say about the hearing.

The left ear has some normal hearing in the low and mid pitches but shows a moderate hearing loss in the high frequencies. These high frequencies make up the “sh”, “ss”, “p” “t” sounds of speech. So I would expect that the hearing aid has been fitted to the left ear to help bring those speech sounds back into play and make speech clear again.

The right ear shows a severe to profound hearing loss with no hearing in the higher frequencies.

The chart at the top is known as a tympanogram and measures how well the eardrum is moving. The results suggest that the eardrum on the left side is moving as well as it should (showing a nice “mountain” shape). The eardrum on the right isn’t moving as it should (“flat” trace).

You don’t mention whether your partner has ever had surgery on their right ear. The overall results could suggest previous surgery, or a hole in the right eardrum or another cause of hearing loss on the right side. Hopefully that helps you understand the test results in partnership with the consultation you had with the ENT Consultant and what they said about the ears themselves.

For further information on hearing tests and what the results mean, you can download a booklet “Understanding your child’s hearing tests” http://www.ndcs.org.uk/family_support/childhood_deafness/hearing_tests/index.html It’s written for parents of children with hearing loss but the test techniques and results formats are the same and will give you further information if wanted.

Vicki

FPS01

Thank you so much for your help with this. My partner has always suffered with bad ear infections in the right ear and had to have a mastoidectomy as a child. From what I understand, when they operated, the infection was worse than they thought and the mastoid bones had to be totally removed (or similar) and at this point he lost all hearing. He has since had further revision surgery where an implant was fitted to try and regain hearing but unfortunately it was not a success. Unfortunately I was not able to attend my partners most recent ENT appointment where these audiology results were discussed with him and he wasn't able to hear much of the explanation. Thank you again