Q: I am a 76-year-old male with a complicated hearing problem. At the age of four in 1938, I had a mastoid operation which resulted in a 50% hearing loss in my left ear. I worked as a railroad engineer from age 19 to age 59 and passed all hearing exams required by the railroad. In 1993 I was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat at an extremely high rate. After later testing, a brain exam revealed I had a mini-stroke. I was later diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and the hearing in my right ear got even worse. It reached the point where I could hear people talking but couldn’t understand what they were saying. People with certain voices, particularly higher pitched ones, I couldn’t understand at all.
I have tried a number of hearing aids, some being very expensive and supposedly high tech but with very little success. Some hearing specialists have told me that it’s a result of my brain not separating the words properly due to the atrial fibrillation.
My son installed a wireless headphone system connected to my TV about 8 years ago. Using the headphones, I can hear and understand the sound perfectly within 50 feet of the transmitter. So, my question is this. If I can hear that well with the wireless headphones,m why can’t the medical profession come up with a comparable hearing aid? Do you have any advice for me?
A: The mastoid bone is located behind the ear. When a person’s mastoid cells become inflamed or infected, mastoiditis may develop. In acute cases, infection may spread outside of the mastoid bone and cause serious complications. The condition commonly affects children; however, older individuals may also be affected. If left untreated, mastoiditis can cause serious complications such as hearing loss, meningitis, a blood clot or brain abscess. Having said this, let’s step back some — in fact, let’s step back 72 years. I’m not defending the medical profession but feel compelled to state that we didn’t have the research, the high-tech equipment, the sophisticated testing, the antibiotics, or the knowledge that 72 years has brought us. The process of helping an individual hear as well as possible is complicated and still today may cause complications, but in 1938 things may have been exceedingly complex in this regard.
Along these lines, hearing aids aren’t new. The first one was created in the 17th century, while the first electric unit was introduced in 1898. Some of the first devices were external and directed sound in front of the unit. They were external and blocked out sounds and other noises. The first electronic units were constructed in the late 1800s. Hearing aids in the early 1900s were bulky and approximately the size of a tall cigar box with a speaker that would fit into the ear. By the 1920s and 1930s, a vacuum hearing aid became successful. The first wearable unit using vacuum technology sold in England in 1936 and was available in our country the year following. This was followed in 1948 with transistors. They were small, didn’t require as much battery power, and had less distortion and heat than previous units did. Transistors followed in 1948 which were smaller and required less battery power. And so it continues. Each manufacturer following devised units that were more sophisticated until we have the units we do today. The purpose of this history is to show that gigantic progress has been made in this one field alone since you were four. So is an ideal hearing aid on the horizon, I certainly hope so for your sake.
There is a definite correlation between having a mini stroke (TIA) or atrial fibrillation (a cardiac abnormality) and profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). The condition is known to occur abruptly and remains one of the most controversial and challenging issues in otology today. Prior studies have proposed underlying causes for SSNHL to include a ruptured inner ear membrane, autoimmune diseases, acoustic tumors, viral or bacterial infections, and vascular occlusion.
Hopefully research will continue and the device you are hoping for will come to fruition in the near future. In the interim, you need a second opinion from another audiologist. Stay tuned.
