Clinical Studies on Acoustic Trauma due to Explosion

Abstract

Audiometric findings of traumatic deafness caused by explosion were discussed in 18 cases. All subjects complained of tinnitus immediately after exposure to explosion and audiometric examination revealed hearing impairment in 15 cases. About four days after explosion tinnitus faded away in all cases, and after two weeks the hearing impairment was restored in most cases.
In order to measure, the difference of sound pressure level in the room, the pistol shot was employed as a sound source. The data obtained in this experiment suggested that individual hearing loss was not always proportioned to the intensity of the sound. As a result, the authors deduced that individual difference of susceptibitily played an important role in the occurrence of the traumatic deafness.