Acute Sensori-neural Hearing Loss Due to Exposure to Loud Sounds in Concerts and Discos

Clinical differences between the effects of rock concerts and discos

Abstract

Eight cases of acute sensori-neural hearing loss after exposure to loud sounds in rock concerts and another eight cases of acute sensori-neural hearing loss after exposure to loud sounds in discos were tested for clinical differences.
1. Seven cases of unilaterally impaired hearing and one of bilaterally impaired hearing were found in the disco group, and four unilaterally impaired and four bilaterally impaired cases in the rock concert group.
2. Tinnitus and hearing impairment appeared within about 2 hours after exposure in almost every case in both the disco and rock concert groups.
3. Three cases of severely impaired and five of mildly impaired were found in the rock concert group, and five of severely impaired and three of mildly impaired hearing in the disco group.
4. In the rock concert group, three had flat-type, and five had dip-type audiograms and in the disco group four had flat-type, three had low-frequency-type and one had dip-type audiograms.
5. In the rock concert group, three patients had poor recovery, one had moderate and four had good recovery.
In the disco group, five had poor, two had moderate and one had good recovery.