No. 13 Baby
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2011
- Messages
- 330
how common is this? any cases of heroin causing it?
oof:
A Case of Heroin Induced Sensorineural Hearing Loss
A case of a 31-year-old male who developed profound sensorineural hearing loss following a heroin overdose is presented. The patient subsequently had a full recovery of his hearing. Other cases of this rare phenomenon are reviewed and management options ...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Ototoxicity is the word you want to google.
Not to forget mentioning that this ocurred after OVERDOSE where oxygen deprivation might have caused the ototoxicity, Hydrocodone was once considered ototoxic but more recent studies suggest the Acetaminophen (which is also ototoxic) was the one to blame for hearing loss after hydrocodone abuse, not the hydrocodone itself, in any case this is extremely rare."Sudden sensorineural hearing loss after intravenous heroin overdose has been described in five previous cases ... The patients fully recovered between three days and three weeks in three out of five of the reports."
So in all documented medical literature only two cases exist where someone has lost their hearing permanently? Considering how common opiate abuse is I really don't think this is worth worrying about unless you have a history of hearing problems already. Seems much more likely that in the case of overdose you'd die from CNS depression or choke on your vomit or something, those are far more serious and more likely concerns from IV heroin use than this very rare phenomena.
Sensorineural hearing loss is an unusual reported one. In recent years, there have been remarkable numbers of occurring of hearing loss (suddenly, or rapidly progressive) associated with opioid overdose, especially in the young patients. The majority of cases has bilateral hearing loss reported after using heroin, morphine, methadone, propoxyphene, hydrocodone, and oxycodone along with acetaminophen. Hearing loss is reversible in some individuals that improves with administration of corticosteroids and pentoxifylline. The cochlear implant is required in irreversible cases. Some patients in addition to hearing loss have tinnitus and vertigo. There are differences among these reports in terms of the route of consumption (oral, inhalation, and intravenous injection), the amount of drug, and duration of use