Abstract

Introduction: Radiotherapy in patients with head and neck tumors may result in damage of different organs such as eyes and ears. However, there is no consensus regarding the level of damage, especially its effect on hearing threshold. This study has been designed to determine the effect of radiotherapy on auditory system of patients with head and neck tumors.

Methods: In a prospective cohort study, 36 patients receiving radiotherapy were examined before and after radiotherapy and variations in the threshold of hearing of radiotherapy-receiving ears (encounter group) and the other ears (witness group) were compared using OAE and Highfrequency audiometry.

Findings: After radiotherapy, according to OAE the threshold of hearing of radiotherapy-receiving ears increased significantly, but the threshold of hearing of the other ears increased significantly just at 2000Hz (P<0.05). The mean of the threshold of hearing variations in all frequencies between the two groups had the significant differences (P<0.001). According to High frequency audiometry method, the variations in threshold of hearing in the three studied frequencies had a significant difference for both groups.

Conclusion: Radiotherapy had related with hearing loss in patients with head and neck tumors. So, preventive measures such as ear protective shields and providing new radiotherapy devices and method sand informing the personnel of radiotherapy units about the standard way of radiation exposure are required.

Keywords: Radiotherapy; Head and neck tumors; Hearing loss