How can ventilation cause deafness?

Sinbad · Feb 22, 2012

Hi all,

I am just re-reading through some of my old notes when I stumbled across this random comment. I can remember the lecturer saying it and I thought it was odd at the time to say without explanation - and then promptly forgot about it until now, lol!

Apparently, if a neonate is ventilated for 5 days or more, this can actually cause deafness. I assume that this must be on the basis on going straight to NICU / NNU from birth? Is this true and how can this happen? TIA.

Koalagrrry · Feb 22, 2012

Air pressure in eustachian tube/inner ear? Ooo.....I dunno!

Penguin · Feb 22, 2012

I found this

Background
Ventilated newborn infants breathing in asynchrony with the ventilator are potentially exposed to more severe barotrauma and are at risk for complications such as pneumothorax or intraventricular haemorrhage. Neuromuscular paralysis, which eliminates the spontaneous breathing efforts of the infant, creates complete synchronization with the ventilator and may minimize these risks. However, complications have been reported with prolonged neuromuscular paralysis in newborn infants.

However, a number of complications have been reported with neuromuscular paralysis in infants such as hypotension (McIntosh 1985), hypoxaemia (Philips 1979), prolonged muscle weakness (Torres 1985), joint contractures (Sinha 1984; Fanconi 1995) and, recently, sensorineural hearing loss (Cheung 1999). Some clinical studies show benefit, whereas other studies show no difference or marked adverse effects of paralysis.

There is a LOT more to the review but just thought it might be a starting point x

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How can ventilation cause deafness?

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