Medical history (history of the patient) is an important component in the diagnosis of dysacusis (hearing loss). Family history
- Are there frequent problems with hearing loss in your family?
Social history
- What is your profession?
- Have you had any contact with lead, carbon monoxide, mercury, carbon disulfide, tin, or other chemical compounds?
- Do you often spend time in noisy environments such as manufacturing plants, nightclubs, or the like?
- Do you wear noise protection when necessary, for example when working on machinery?
- Is there any evidence of psychosocial stress or strain due to your family situation?
Current medical history/systemic history (somatic and psychological complaints).
- Have you noticed that you have to turn up the volume on the TV or radio than you used to?
- Do you miss out on information when many people are talking in confusion?
- Did the hearing loss come on suddenly?
- Have you noticed any other symptoms, such as.
- Leakage of fluid from the ear?
- Earache?
- Dizziness ?
Vegetative anamnesis including nutritional anamnesis.
- Do you get enough exercise every day?
- Do you smoke? If so, how many cigarettes, cigars or pipes per day?
- Do you drink alcohol? If yes, what drink(s) and how many glasses per day?
- Do you use drugs? If yes, which drugs (GHB (“liquid ecstasy”), heroin, cocaine) and how often per day or per week?
Self history incl. drug history.
- Pre-existing conditions (diseases of the ears)
- Operations
- Allergies
- Environmental history
- Blast trauma
- Noise – so there is a risk of noise-induced hearing loss at constant or year-long sound levels of 85 dB(A); even short-term strong noise such as loud disco music (110 dB) should be avoided; among the recognized occupational diseases, noise-induced hearing loss is the most common occupational disease with about 40%.
- Industrial substances such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, tin; carbon monoxide; fluorocarbon compounds; carbon disulfide; styrene; carbon tetrachloride compounds; toluene; trichloroethylene; xylene.
Drug history (ototoxic; ototoxic drugs/ototoxic (hearing-damaging) drugs).
- Analgesics (pain medications)
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID): acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) [hearing impairment: > 1.95 g, dose-dependent and reversible after a short period of time; hearing impairment: > 10 g/d; ringing in the ears: 6-8 g and above]; salicylates (sensorineural hearing loss)
- Antibiotics
- Aminoglycoside antibiotics (aminoglycosides; disorders especially in the higher frequencies) – amikacin, gentamycin (gentamicin), kanamycin, neomycin, netilmicin, paromomycin, streptomycin, tobramycin.
- Glycopeptide antibiotics (vancomycin, teicoplanin).
- Gyrase inhibitors (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin).
- Macrolides (interference in the range of the complete frequency spectrum) – azithromycin, erythromycin, clarithromycin.
- Hearing loss is not more common with macrolides than with amoxicillin and fluoroquinolones.
- Antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine or quinine (quinine alkaloids).
- Anticonvulsants such as carbamazepine, phenytoin, streptomycin.
- Diuretics (diuretic medications).
- Carboanhydrase inhibitors (acetazolamide).
- Loop diuretics (bumetanide; etacrylic acid; furosemide – here, the side effect occurs mainly with rapid intravenous injection in the presence of coexisting renal insufficiency)
- Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (avanafil, sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil).
- Proton pump inhibitors (proton pump inhibitors, PPI; acid blockers) – omeprazole.
- Thalidomide damage caused by taking the drug thalidomide in the 1960s.
- Cytostatic drugs such as cisplatin, carboplatin, bleomycin, vincristine.
