Do you take good care of your hearing? Yangcheng Evening News reporter learned from the Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital otology department, after the Spring Festival, the number of otologists tend to increase, including hearing damage, sudden deafness and other patients, which are related to the change of habits during the holidays, such as firecracker noise, prolonged listening to songs, overexertion, smoking and drinking may cause hearing damage.
High incidence of post-holiday 1 sudden deafness
Rescue tips: 7 days is the golden period of hearing rescue
This year, 45-year-old Aunt Chen has not yet finished the Spring Festival, suffered a hearing crisis. Before the Chinese New Year for a few days cleaning, New Year’s Eve shopping and cooking, so busy that you can not sleep, only four or five hours of sleep every day. As a result, when she woke up on the second day of the Lunar New Year, she found that her left ear was buzzing, and she felt spinning and unsteady walking. The family rushed her to the hospital for emergency treatment. After examination by an otologist, it was found that it was sudden deafness, closely related to overexertion, and that Chen’s hearing in her left ear had been reduced to nearly total deafness.
Suggestion: Wu Pena, director of otology at Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, said that sudden deafness like Chen’s aunt is mostly caused by excessive fatigue and mental anxiety. Sudden deafness is not uncommon, yet it does not attract enough attention. The cause of sudden deafness is still unclear and is related to many factors. One of the recognized factors is a viral infection that causes damage to the hair cells in the inner ear and leads to hearing loss, especially when the body is fatigued. Another common cause is due to spasm of small blood vessels in the inner ear or thrombosis, causing ischemia in the inner ear, which can also lead to damage to the hair cells and hearing impairment.
She especially emphasized that if you experience sudden deafness, you should go to the ENT department of the hospital in time. Generally speaking, within one week after the occurrence of tinnitus and deafness, it is the golden period of treatment to “save the hearing”. Sudden deafness should be treated as an emergency because the most important thing for the patient is to improve and restore hearing, and the best time for treatment is within a week after the onset of the disease, and there is still hope for treatment within 3 months. Once the patient has been seen for more than 3 months, it will be difficult to recover the damaged hearing.
It is important to remind that the number of patients with sudden deafness increases around the holidays, so we should pay attention to avoid possible triggers that cause sudden deafness, such as staying up late continuously or being mentally stressed, and we must pay attention to adjustment and rest when we feel physically and mentally exhausted.
High incidence of post-holiday 2
Traumatic tympanic membrane perforation
Rescue tip: After suffering from noise such as firecrackers, if low-pitched tinnitus cannot be relieved after a day, you should immediately go to the hospital otology department
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Mr. Liu, who lives in Yuexiu District, had his ears shocked when he was playing firecrackers, and he couldn’t hear the sound in his left ear, as if something was blocking his ear. During the examination, the doctor found that Mr. Liu’s left ear canal was full of blood clots, and after cleaning up the blood scabs, he found that Mr. Liu’s eardrum was perforated.
Zhang, who just started college this year, went back home on New Year’s Eve to set off firecrackers, and his ears were “numb” at the time, and he woke up the next day with tinnitus and dizziness. Because he was too busy to go to the hospital for New Year’s Eve and thought his ear hearing would get better on its own, he put it off again and again until after New Year’s Eve, when he remembered to go to the hospital. As a result, the doctor diagnosed that Xiao Zhang had severe blast deafness in one ear, and the deafness would improve after treatment, but the hearing could not be fully recovered because the condition was delayed for a long time.
Suggestions: Every year during and after the Chinese New Year, many patients with tinnitus and deafness caused by firecrackers and noise are seen in hospital outpatient clinics. Wu Pena reminded that firecrackers should be covered tightly when burning ears, such as tinnitus, hearing loss and other phenomena to seek medical attention as soon as possible.
According to the report, the noise of firecrackers and other noise is acute damage to the hearing, and it is very difficult to treat. Depending on the degree of injury, the tympanic membrane can be perforated, hearing bone fracture, inner ear tissue bleeding, etc. In mild cases, hearing can be partially or mostly restored, while in severe cases, permanent deafness can result. Hearing loss caused by mild tympanic membrane damage is usually recoverable on its own. However, if the air wave is so large that it impacts the inner ear and causes inner ear damage, especially if the tinnitus cannot be relieved for more than a day, you need to go to a hospital otology department for treatment immediately. If the hearing loss is caused by hearing bone fracture or ear joint dislocation, surgical treatment may also be required.
When setting off fireworks for the holidays, be sure to protect yourself from noise. It is best to wear ear protection such as ear plugs and earmuffs and stay away from the firecracker area as much as possible. When in noisy places such as bars and concerts, it is also important to protect your hearing and reduce the time both ears are exposed to noise to avoid permanent hearing loss.
High incidence of post-holiday 3 ear water imbalance
Rescue tip: See a doctor as soon as you have symptoms
Uncle Li has had intermittent vertigo for several years, with several repeated episodes, which can be relieved on its own after resting, and he himself does not care much. This year, after several old classmates from abroad came back for New Year’s Eve, and after several days of gathering, Uncle Li woke up on the morning of the ninth day of the month and felt that he was spinning around and couldn’t stand up. At first Uncle Li thought he was too tired, ate some cold medicine and headache medicine even, but then the situation became more and more serious, continuous vertigo for several days, but also appear ear swelling, tinnitus and hearing loss. He went to the hospital and was told that he had Meniere’s syndrome, and that the cause was in his ears.
Suggestions: Pena Wu introduced that Meniere’s syndrome is what we call “ear water imbalance”, which is an idiopathic inner ear disease with four typical symptoms: vertigo, deafness, tinnitus and a feeling of stuffiness in the ears, mostly occurring in young and middle-aged people between 30 and 50 years old. During the holiday season, some people who already have problems with their ears may be triggered to have a recurrence of Meniere’s syndrome due to exertion, mental tension, and too heavy diet, which can make people feel spinning and unstable walking. If not treated in time, it can affect the body’s balance function, and hearing will fluctuate and decline during the attack period. Recurrent attacks may also lead to hearing damage and permanent hearing loss.
Therefore, Pena Wu reminds that people with otitis media or Meniere’s syndrome should take care not to work too hard during the holiday season, eat a light diet, and avoid excessive excitement or stress.