Hearing loss after head injury.

This work reports on the hearing loss of 395 patients who were hospitalized after brain concussion. The percentage of hearing loss and vestibular disturbances appearing after fracture of the temporal bone is higher than in cases with skull fractures without fracture of the temporal bone or with brain concussion alone. Conductive deafness caused by head injury usually disappears in two months time. If conductive deafness remains, the suspicion of dislocation of the ossicular bones arises and such patients must undergo an operation. As the cases where sensorineural deafness disappeared within six months after head injury were rare, final evaluation of the hearing loss can be made one year after the head injury. In the majority of cases, vestibular disturbances and positional nystagmus disappear within six months after the head injury.