{"id":6546,"date":"2019-08-09T08:06:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arizonahearing.com\/?p=6546"},"modified":"2022-06-07T12:40:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T19:40:18","slug":"why-certain-antibiotics-cause-hearing-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arizonahearing.com\/why-certain-antibiotics-cause-hearing-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Certain Antibiotics Cause Hearing Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are several common factors associated with hearing loss in Tucson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aging, noise exposure, disease and ototoxic medications can all contribute to hearing impairment.<\/p>\n

Understanding the mechanisms behind hearing loss is a necessary step in managing the condition \u2013 and possibly even coming up with ways to prevent it.<\/p>\n

Ototoxicity and Medications<\/h2>\n

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More than 200 drugs have been classified as ototoxic \u2013 that is, they have the ability to damage hearing.<\/p>\n

The most common medications to have an adverse effect on hearing include quinine, chemotherapy drugs, loop diuretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and aminoglycoside antibiotics such as gentamicin.<\/p>\n

These drugs can all lead to temporary or permanent hearing loss<\/a> and tinnitus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aminoglycosides are known as broad-spectrum antibiotics; rather than targeting specific microbes, as narrow-spectrum antibiotics are designed to do, these work on a wide range of bacteria.<\/p>\n

Gentamicin and other aminoglycosides are often used to treat infants in neonatal intensive care units; infections in premature babies often prove deadly before doctors can determine which bacteria are at fault.<\/p>\n

While broad-spectrum antibiotics are successful in treating infection, the downside is their ability to damage hearing.<\/p>\n

Infants prescribed these drugs are six times more likely to develop hearing loss compared to healthy babies with normal hearing.<\/p>\n

Researchers from Creighton University in Nebraska, led by Peter Steyger, wanted to examine the link between antibiotics and hearing impairment.<\/p>\n

Doctors have long understood that these drugs cause hearing damage, but haven\u2019t known why.<\/p>\n

Steyger and his team tested gentamicin<\/a> on mice in order to measure its effects.<\/p>\n

They were able to determine that inflammation associated with infection caused ion channels in the tiny hair cells of the cochlea to become more permeable to the antibiotics, allowing more of the drug to absorb into the inner ear.<\/p>\n

This made the mice more susceptible to the medication\u2019s toxic properties.<\/p>\n

One protein\u2013 TRPV1 \u2013 had an especially profound effect on the ion channels and helped gentamicin enter the sensory cells when inflammation was occurring.<\/p>\n

Researchers bred mice without the TRPV1 protein and found that the genetically-altered rodents were protected against hearing loss even when body-wide inflammation was occurring.<\/p>\n

These findings are a cautionary tale for doctors; they demonstrate that narrow-spectrum antibiotics should be used to treat infections whenever possible, in order to limit the chances of hearing loss from occurring in patients with body-wide infections.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t always possible, of course; there are cases in which aminoglycosides<\/a> are the only viable treatment option.<\/p>\n

Signs of Hearing Loss<\/h2>\n

Health care providers must monitor these patients carefully for signs of hearing loss and treat the condition as soon as possible in order to improve their long-term outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is especially important in children learning to listen and speak,\u201d Steyger explains, \u201cwhere delay in identifying hearing loss<\/strong> has lifelong consequences including delayed acquisition of spoken language, less academic success and reduced income.\u201d<\/p>\n

His research team is urging the development of new techniques that would allow doctors to identify bacteria causing infection more quickly to reduce the use of potentially damaging broad-spectrum antibiotics.<\/p>\n

For more information on the link between antibiotics and hearing, talk to your Tucson audiologist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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