Investigatoon of Hearing Loss in Brucellosis

There exists a wide spectrum of clinical signs in brucellosis. Hearing loss is one of these signs but there are a few reports in literature about it. This study was planned to determine the frequency of hearing loss in brucellosis. Sixty patients diagnosed as brucellosis according to clinical and serological findings in our clinic were included to the study. Forty-one patients submitted to our clinic with different complaints and without any evidence for brucellosis were accepted as control group. Hearing loss was determined by odiometric examinations in both groups. Hearing loss was found in 28 (46.6%) of cases from the study group and in 8 (19.5%) cases from the control group (p < 0.01). There wasn’t any difference between the groups according to sexuality. Hearing loss was found more frequent in the patients over 30 years old. According to the results of this study we think that it will be useful to evaluate the hearing functions before, the treatment, particularly in areas where Brucella infections are endemic