Abstract: Objectives: To study the effect of treatment with interferon and ribavirin on hearing level in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted on 50 patients with compensated chronic HCV. They were selected from hepatology outpatient clinic in Benha university hospital. Audiological assement were done for all patients in audiology clinic, Benha university hospital between March 2010 and March 2012,meanauditory hearing threshold (MHT), day before therapy (MHT-0), after 1st day (MHT-1), after 7th day (MHT-7), after 21st day (MHT-21), monthly during therapy, 1 month after termination of therapy (MHT-30 post TTT) and 2 months after termination of therapy (MHT-60 postTTT). Results: There were 30 cases (60%) without noticeable change in audiometry readings & 20 cases (40%) with sensori-neural hearing loss(SNHL), half of them (10 cases) returned totally, (8 cases) of them (16% of total) returned but less than previous and 10% (2 cases) of them (4% of total) disabled. Conclusion: Interferon/ribavirin combination therapy may cause SNHL, Possible mechanisms involved include direct ototoxicity, autoimmunity and hematological changes. Hearing loss did not fully resolve after termination of therapy with this combination therapy. So care should be taken for sings of ototoxicity. |
