Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Autoimmune Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Autoimmune diseases may cause various kinds of conflicts in and outside the target organ, and some evidence brings forward the suggestion that autoimmune diseases may damage the auditory nerve and cause sensorineural hearing loss. However, this relationship is not clearly defined yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess sensorineural hearing loss in autoimmune diseases through systematic review and metaanalysis. The literature databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of knowledge, and Cochrane library were thoroughly searched, and a meta-analysis study was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Eighteen articles were included, involving 27 859 cases affected by autoimmune diseases. The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in systemic lupus erythematosus cases was 21.26 [3.80, 38.71]%, which was significant, and pooled analysis of odds ratio observed in individual studies showed that the odds of sensorineural hearing loss prevalence was 12.11 [7.4, 24.12] (P <.001). The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in rheumatoid arthritis cases was 16.14 [-9.03, 41.31]%, which was significant, and pooled analysis of odds ratio observed in individual studies showed that the odds of sensorineural hearing loss prevalence was 2.23 [1.84, 2.32] (P <.001). In vitiligo cases, the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss was 38.80 [22.36, 55.25]%, which was significant, and pooled analysis of odds ratio observed in individual studies showed that the odds of sensorineural hearing loss prevalence was 5.82 [3.74, 9.68] (P <.001). The present study showed that sensorineural hearing loss is significantly related to the autoimmune diseases of systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vitiligo. Therefore, these cases need a routine evaluation of sensorineural hearing loss.