Complete Information on Auditory neuropathy with Treatment and Prevention

Jun 1
07:11

2008

Juliet Cohen

Juliet Cohen

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Auditory neuropathy is a hearing disorder in which audio enters the inner ear usually but the infection of signals from the inner ear to the mind is impaired. An individual with auditory neuropathy may be capable to learn sounds, but would yet get trouble recognizing spoken words.

mediaimage

Sounds may fade in and out for these individuals and seem out of sync. The condition probably has more than one cause. In some cases,Complete Information on Auditory neuropathy with Treatment and Prevention Articles it may involve damage to the inner hair cells - specialized sensory cells in the inner ear that transmit information about sounds through the nervous system to the brain. Several factors have been linked to auditory neuropathy in children. However, a clear cause and effect relationship has not been proven. Other causes may include faulty connections between the inner hair cells and the nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain, or damage to the nerve itself.

A combination of these problems may happen in some cases. Although outer hair cells- hair cells adjoining to and more numerous than the inner hair cells - are mostly more inclined to damage than inner hair cells, outer hair cells appear to operate usually in folk with auditory neuropathy. Some people with auditory neuropathy have neurological disorders that also cause problems outside of the hearing system. Auditory neuropathy can affect people of all ages, from infancy through adulthood. The number of people affected by auditory neuropathy is not known, but the condition affects a relatively small percentage of people who are deaf or hearing-impaired. Auditory neuropathy runs in some families, which suggests that genetic factors may be involved in some cases.

People with auditory neuropathy may get natural hearing, or hearing departure ranging from balmy to serious, they ever have impoverished speech-perception abilities, meaning they have problem agreement address understandably. Some patients with auditory neuropathy appear, based on history and initial behavioral testing, to fit into the category of "central auditory processing disorder". However, evaluation of such patients with physiological measures sensitive to auditory nerve disorders shows a more peripheral site consistent with auditory neuropathy. Sometimes people with auditory neuropathy are subsequently diagnosed with diseases such as charcot marie tooth disease and friedreich's ataxia. In these cases, auditory neuropathy may be a symptom of the more global effects these diseases rather than an isolated neuropathy of the ear-brain connection.

The diagnosis of auditory neuropathy is based on a certain pattern of results from a number of different hearing tests. Apparently, only a few children with auditory neuropathy are able to be treated with hearing aids, while others are helped only with cochlear implants. Parents of children with auditory neuropathy face the same language and communication challenges that parents of deaf children do. Therefore, medical treatment of auditory neuropathy is not currently available. Management typically involves either the use of hearing aids or cochlear implants. Some children benefit from hearing aids. However, many children get limited hearing aid benefit or no benefit at all. At this time, there is no reliable way to predict who will and will not benefit. Hearing aids must be set carefully to prevent damage to the parts of the ear that receive sounds normally.