Auditory and vestibular sequelae to traumatic brain injury: a pilot study

Aim. To investigate the incidence of persisting auditory and vestibular sequelae in a group of 30 young adults recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Methods. 30 participants, aged 21-45 years, with TBI suffered 19 months to 27 years previously, underwent a semi-structured interview and pure-tone hearing test in their home. Participants who failed the hearing screen then undertook a more comprehensive audiological evaluation. Results. A variety of sequelae to TBI were reported. These were interpreted as tinnitus (53%), vestibular dysfunction (83%), abnormal facial sensory symptoms (27%) and intolerance to loud/sudden noises (87%). Ten (33%) participants demonstrated significant sensorineural hearing impairment in addition to speech recognition performance significantly worse than would have been predicted from their hearing impairment. Conclusions. Findings from this study will be of benefit to health professionals working in this area of rehabilitation as they seek to provide functional assessments and devise programmes to treat the often devastating auditory processing problems of people recovering from TBI.