[Hearing assessment of children treated with Cisplatin].

THE AIM OF THE STUDY

Cisplatin's effect on the inner ear in children and compare results of the tonal audiometry and the oto-acousitic emission audiometry.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Audiological examinations were conducted on 33 children who had been treated with Cisplatin. Normal hearing prior to the cytostatic therapy would qualify a child for inclusion in the examinations. Cisplatin was administered via intravenous infusion in dosages of 15 mg/m2 to 20 mg/m2 on five successive days of each month or 50-75 mg/m2 every 3 weeks. The patients were divided into groups according to ratio of the cumulative dosage per 1 m2 of the body area. Hearing was assessed with tonal and impendence audiometry as well as oto-acousitic emission audiometry--DPOAE.

RESULTS

The tonal audiometry helped detect hearing damage in 12 out of the 33 children participating in the examination, with unilateral loss found in 2 and bilateral loss encountered in 10 children. Hearing threshold shifts ranged between 10 and 40 dB in frequencies above 2000 Hz. The largest hearing threshold shift was registered for the region of 6000-8000 Hz. Tonal audiometry and oto-acoustic emission audiometry result consistency was encountered in 11 children from the study group.

CONCLUSIONS

No effect of the cytostatic dose level on the degree of hearing loss could be demonstrated in the examined group of children. The sensitivity of the oto-acoustic emission and of the tonal audiometry to detect and monitor hypacusis were found to be comparable.