JEDDAH, 3 May — In the interest of maintaining the hearing faculty, a world expert has strongly recommended that children should use ear protection and adults avoid noise exposure.
"Parents should guard their children against ear infections, which if neglected could damage the ear drums. In the case of youths and adults, personal stereo sets can be harmful to the ear if the volume is turned loud. Those using headphones should be careful as not to turn the volume beyond halfway. People should also avoid places that are noisy or where loud music is played," Prof. John W. House, president of the Los Angeles-based House Ear Institute said in an interview with Arab News.
"Blood circulation to the inner ear is most important. As people grow old, the blood flow decreases. When that happens, we try to avoid conscription of blood vessels. We recommend against consuming excess of cigarettes or coffee, because nicotine and caffeine can have toxic effect on hearing. Tea has less caffeine, but anything in moderation is all right. A person having two or three cups of coffee or tea a day does not pose a problem, but those who consume 10 to 20 cups of coffee or smoke heavily run the risk of developing hearing problems in the future," said Dr. House who runs the ear research institute with a $21 million annual budget.
Hearing is one of the important senses and also a complicated structure, he emphasized, adding: "Associated with ear problems are dizziness and tumors that can ultimately affect the brain." Asked about the latest developments in treating tumors, House said: "Acoustic tumors are benign and if diagnosed early they could be removed and the patient’s hearing capability preserved. But when tumors grow large, it’s not possible to save their hearing faculty; the removal of tumors itself could cause a total hearing loss. In young patients tumors grow large very rapidly over a period of two or three years. Tumors developing in patients above 75 years of age may not grow large. In some cases tumors have to be surgically removed, but in the case of old patients, they need to be observed without resorting to surgery. There is also a possibility of radiation treatment to stop the growth of tumors."
Dr. House performed several ear operations during his recent visit at the Saudi German Hospital, which also organized his presentations at the 5th otology symposium, held in cooperation with Saudi Otolaryngology Society. He gave presentations on Meniere’s disease, acoustic tumor, tempanoplasty, ossiculoplasty and cochlear implant. Dr. House explained that Meniere’s disease — the disease of the inner ear caused a fluctuating type of hearing loss.
"There are many theories why people suffer from Meniere’s disease," he said, adding: "The House Ear Institute has discovered that there may be a connection with a virus and we’ve identified it."
According to Dr. House, quite a few patients here have the problem of hearing loss due to infections and deterioration of the inner ear nerve. "We don’t have a cure for the inner nerve deterioration. However, most of the patients can benefit from new developments in the hearing aid technology."
Dr. House is involved in the institute, which was started by his father in 1946, since he graduated from a medical school in 1974. He has since performed thousands of ear operations. The institute sees about 30,000 ear patients in a year from all over the world.
According to him, more than 28 million Americans have some degree of haring loss, which may be due to an ear disease, a middle ear disorder or an inner ear problem. Investigation of the causes of hearing and related disorders is hampered by the fact that the extremely hard temporal bone completely encases the hearing and balance organs, making them inaccessible for study during an individual’s lifetime.
A disorder of the middle ear such as ear infection, wax build-up or eardrum perforation may impede the mobility of the three small ear bones, the hammer, anvil and stirrup. This disrupts the conversion of sound waves or acoustic energy into mechanical energy and conductive loss results.
"Sensorineural hearing loss, or nerve deafness, occurs when the sensory cells in the hearing organ or cochlea are permanently damaged. This may be due to a variety of factors including hereditary disorder, ear disease, aging, over-exposure to sound or an adverse reaction to certain medications," he added.