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Tinnitus in Children

tinnitus in children

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Tinnitus in children is a result of chemotherapy. In many cases it is not reported. There is help for tinnitus. You may have tinnitus yourself if you had chemotherapy. You will read about these topics on this web page.

Ototoxicity

This means damage to the ear. Ototoxicity is a result of platinum based chemotherapy drugs. Cisplatin is the most common platinum chemotherapy agent and carboplatin is the other one. The drugs damage the tiny hair cells (cilia) in the inner ear. Those hairs vibrate in response to sound waves.

The damage to the cilia leads to progressive and irreversible hearing loss. It leads to tinnitus. Twenty percent of all chemotherapy patients suffer from tinnitus.

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology discovered that the medical community has underreported ototoxicity’s frequency and severity. Doctors have miscalculated the magnitude of ototoxicity in children treated with platinum drugs.

Hearing Loss in Children

A major problem for doctors diagnosing hearing loss from ototoxicity is that it is not that obvious. Children do not lose all their hearing. It is usually a high frequency hearing loss. Small children will not know that they have not heard what you are saying.

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) researchers tested the hearing of 67 patients, ages 8 months to 23 years. They had received platinum-based chemotherapy. According to the study, hearing loss was found in 61 percent of the patients.

This included 55 percent of the children treated with cisplatin; 38 percent of the children treated with carboplatin; and 84 percent of the children treated with both drugs. Tinnitus in children accompanies hearing loss.

Reporting Hearing Loss

Researchers think that many children are falling through the cracks in the system. Hearing loss uses the criteria from:

  • The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and
  • The National Cancer Institute’s Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE)

Clinical trials often focus only on Grade 3 and Grade 4 hearing loss. They require intervention. The study said that agreement between the CTCAE and ASHA criteria was inadequate.

"In the case of hearing loss, this would leave Grades 1 and 2 ototoxicity unreported." That underestimates the magnitude of ototoxicity in children treated with platinum-based drugs.

Help for Tinnitus

Scientists think that ototoxicity may soon be preventable. Researchers at the OHSU School of Medicine have shown that sodium thiosulfate decreased hearing loss in patients with malignant brain tumors. The sodium thiosulfate was given four hours after carboplatin, and the hearing loss decreased from 84 percent of patients to 29 percent.

The OHSU study team is developing protocols for a clinical trial to test another drug. The second possible chemo-protectant is called N-acetylcysteine, or NAC. The NAC may prevent hearing loss by binding to cisplatin’s platinum molecules, inactivating them. It is known as a free radical scavenger.

Doctors are hopeful that either one of these chemicals will decrease the hearing loss and tinnitus. You can read about a homeopathic solution to your tinnitus in our Bookstore/Pharmacy. We sell a product made of natural ingredients that offers relief from the sounds of tinnitus. We also offer a money-back guarantee.

Conclusion

Tinnitus in children is a serious issue. It means they will live all of their lives with these noises in their ears. That is discouraging news. Hopefully they will prevent it in the future.

If you have any colon cancer, or chemotherapy, or tinnitus questions, please send then our way. We are always happy to hear from our readers.

Written by Margaret Stenerson - 9/29/2010

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