Taipei City Hospital

      Hearing impairment among the elderly is often considered as being related to aging, but otolaryngologist physicians warn that if unilateral hearing impairment occurs in the elderly, it may be a sign of medical conditions, such as acoustic neuroma, meningioma, etc.

      A 65-year-old male had a transient ischemic attack (TIA), commonly known as a mini-stroke, six months ago, and had no residual hemiplegia or other sequelae after timely treatment. But in the past few months, the patient felt that his right ear hearing had increasingly worsened, and was accompanied by tinnitus. So he underwent a hearing test at the ENT outpatient department and was diagnosed with asymmetrical sensorineural hearing loss of the ears.
      Further echoencephalogram (EEG) examinations revealed the possibility of brain tumor compression on the brain auditory nerves or acoustic neuroma, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain was arranged. The results showed that the patient had a rare cerebral aneurysm. After appropriate treatment, the patient’s condition was stabilized.

      Lai Jianzhong, an otolaryngologist at the Renai Branch of Taipei City Hospital, said that although hearing impairment among the elderly is indeed an irreversible degenerative disease, anyone suffering from unilateral hearing impairment should be more vigilant. This is because, in addition to noise injury or certain ototoxic medications, a small proportion of unilateral hearing loss cases may be caused by brain tumors, commonly acoustic neuroma or meningioma or, for this patient, aneurysm which is even rarer. Aneurysm may manifest in different symptoms depending on their locations. In severe cases, it can cause stroke, paralysis or even coma.