Sensorineural hearing loss in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Extraintestinal Crohn’s Disease Mimicking Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease: A Histopathological Approach

“…Autoimmune reactivity to the inner ear has been observed as a clinical feature in various systemic immunemediated disorders, such as Cogan's syndrome, Behçet's disease, Wegener's granulomatosis, systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, giant cell arteritis, panarteritis nodosa and unclassified systemic vasculitis [Stone and Francis, 2000]. Not surprising, it has also been linked to inflammatory bowel disease [Harris and Sharp, 1990;Karmody et al, 2009;Staecker and Lefebvre, 2002]. In an animal model [Harris, 1987] and a histopathological study of the temporal bones in 1 patient with ulcerative colitis, lymphocytic infiltration of the inner ear was found [Hoistad et al, 1998], which is different from our findings but also suggests an autoimmune process.…”

Symptomatic sensorineural hearing loss in patients with ulcerative colitis

“…Most data on this association have been reported as single case reports [7][8][9][10][11], and few studies that investigated patient series [12][13][14] suggested that pauci-or asymptomatic SNHL may be found in up to about 40 % of UC patients. Since the clinical course of hearing loss is independent from that of UC, and if the disorder is not recognized, it causes permanent hearing loss, and it has been suggested that it is important to identify SNHL in its early phases [12].…”

“…The latter may include sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) [4], i.e., sudden or progressive hearing impairment due to the degeneration of various components of the cochlea [5], which was first associated with IBD by Levitan in 1973 [6]. Since then, SNHL in UC has been mainly described as single case reports [7][8][9][10][11], and the few studies conducted on series of patients with IBD have demonstrated that this condition is more prevalent (although often with subclinical manifestations) in adult UC patients [12][13][14], whereas it has not been found in pediatric IBD series [15].…”

Chronic diseases and life events accounted for 2–18 % population attributable risks for adult hearing loss: UK Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007

“…Inflammatory bowel diseases are described as chronic, relapsing, and remitting inflammatory conditions affecting the digestive system, comprising two main distinctive diseases, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease and usually present [27,28]. It has been considered a local or systemic immunopathy, and the associated sensorineural hearing loss could be hypothesized as an expression of systemic immune dysfunction following the bowel problem [29]. Literature on the potential association between bladder disease and hearing loss is also rather scarce.…”