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Chapter 30 — 4
High frequency hearing loss also renders consonants such as "S" or "CH" difficult to hear –
hence the story of the yacht owner who was delighted when the curvaceous blonde diver with
sensorineural deafness accepted his invitation to "crew" on his yacht.
Barotrauma
Inner ear barotrauma or associated round window fistula may lead to temporary or permanent
hearing loss (see Chapter 9).
Decompression Sickness
Inner ear damage is an uncommon complication of decompression sickness (see Chapter 15)
in shallow air breathing divers. It is more common in deep, helium or mixed gas divers.
OVERVIEW OF HEARING
LOSS
•
All prospective divers must have their ears examined to exclude ear problems
likely to
predispose to barotrauma.
• All divers
should have a baseline audiometry
performed, to enable the physician to detect
early hearing loss, to make assessment of future hearing problems much easier and to allow
early and more knowledgeable treatment to be administered in the (not uncommon) event of
a diver presenting with hearing loss.
•
Any case of hearing loss in a diver should be assessed as soon as possible by a diving
physician.
The doctor will take a history of the condition, examine the ears, test the hearing
by pure tone audiometry at least, and possibly perform other specialised investigations such
as bone conduction, speech discrimination, impedance audiometry, diving tympanogram,
electro-nystagmograms and brain stem evoked auditory responses.
The cause is usually fairly obvious and
management
of the specific conditions is covered in
other chapters.
•
Divers with pre-existing hearing loss
should realise that
any deafness arising from
barotrauma will be added to the loss they already have
.
It is also believed that people with
hearing impairment are more susceptible to further damage than others. Divers who are
aware of hearing loss should discuss the implications with a diving physician.
•
Occupational implications are raised.
Those who need excellent hearing for their
livelihood, such as musicians, cardiologists, sonar operators and airline pilots, should
consider whether the small but real risk of hearing damage associated with diving is worth
taking.
•
Hearing loss is sometimes associated with abnormalities of the body's balance
mechanism
, which might have safety implications with diving (see Chapter 31).