Abstract
This paper reports on a case of unilateral profound deafness which occurred following chickenpox infection. A 5-year-old boy's hearing had been found to be normal by pure tone audiometry before he contracted chickenpox. After the infection, which was confirmed by an antibody titer rise in the serum, the patient was found to be profoundly deaf in his left ear. The similarity of the clinical features of this case to those of deafness following mumps allows us to suppose that a similar pathology underlies these two types of deafness. A review of the literature revealed only two detailed reports of such cases, while several other reports indicated a low incidence of deafness following chickenpox. Accumulation of more such cases is necessary to elucidate the clinical picture of this type of deafness.
