Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine the configuration of pathologic
audiograms in patients with excessive noise exposure, and to calculate the
frequency of notches in the audiogram in patients with and without
excessive noise exposure by avoiding the effect of age-related hearing
loss. We have analyzed 514 audiograms of 257 patients aged between 20 to
50 years: 240 patients (mean age of 38.7 years) with excessive noise
exposure and 17 patients (mean age of 41.2 years) with notches in the
audiogram, but without a history of excessive noise exposure. For
statistical data analysis we have used the Chi-square test and Fisher
exact test with the level of significance p < 0.05. Pathologic audiograms
were classified into five different types: Slope at 4000 Hz (0.8%), Slope
at 2000 Hz (15.1%), Notch at 4000 Hz (67.4%), Notch at 2000 Hz (0.8%),
Flat (8.9%), and 7% were out of this classification. A total of 190
(79.2%) patients with excessive noise exposure had a notch in the
audiogram. Left ear notches were the most common. Among the patients with
notched audiograms, 91.8% had a history of excessive noise exposure,
either occupational or nonoccupational, and 8.2% did not report any
excessive noise exposure.
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