Audio-Vestibular Symptoms Potentially Associated With COVID-19 Infection – Consultant360
Findings from a systematic review of reports, including a collection of 28 case reports/series and 28 cross-sectional studies suggest that a variety of audio-vestibular symptoms may be associated with COVID-19 infections.1
Symptoms may include:
Hearing loss
Tinnitus: ringing or buzzing noise in one or both ears that may be constant or come-and-go, which is often associated with hearing loss
Rotatory vertigo: a sensation of rotation resembling the feeling of being on a merry-go-…….
Findings from a systematic review of reports, including a collection of 28 case reports/series and 28 cross-sectional studies suggest that a variety of audio-vestibular symptoms may be associated with COVID-19 infections.1
Symptoms may include:
- Hearing loss
- Tinnitus: ringing or buzzing noise in one or both ears that may be constant or come-and-go, which is often associated with hearing loss
- Rotatory vertigo: a sensation of rotation resembling the feeling of being on a merry-go-round
Eric Smouha, MD, is an attending otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates and a clinical professor of otolaryngology at Mount Sinai Health System (New York, NY). Consultant360 reached out to Dr Smouha to answer our questions about the effect the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have on the inner ear.
Consultant360: Please describe the audio-vestibular symptoms that audiologists and otolaryngologists have been seeing in patients who have had COVID-19 infection.
Eric Smouha, MD: A systematic review of reports on COVID-19 and audio-vestibular symptoms found a 7.6% incidence of hearing loss, a 14.8% incidence of tinnitus, and a 7.2% incidence of vertigo in patients with COVID-19 infection.1 The authors commented that these figures could be an overestimate because the source papers did not always differentiate between new and preexisting symptoms.
At this point in time, many people have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and most are symptomatic with fever and upper respiratory symptoms. Some have had cardiovascular and neurovascular symptoms that have resulted in severe illness. A significant percentage have remained asymptomatic. Because testing is usually only performed in symptomatic or exposed individuals, the true incidence of organ involvement is unknown. A 7% incidence of audio-vestibular symptoms is cited in this paper, but this is an estimate at best.1 These symptoms are self-reported, and some of these may have been coincidental and not actually caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We need to accumulate more data before we know for certain.
Consultant360: What effects does the SARS-CoV-2 virus have on the inner ear?
ES: A recent article by Stankovic and colleagues at Harvard University showed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is capable …….
Source: https://www.consultant360.com/audio-vestibular-symptoms-potentially-associated-covid-19-infection
