Aminoglycoside ototoxicity in pediatric patients receiving long-term peritoneal dialysis.

We evaluated 14 children on long-term peritoneal dialysis for ototoxicity associated with aminoglycoside (AG) therapy. Baseline evaluation of all patients and 7 controls included pure-tone audiometry (PTA) and click-evoked auditory brain stem response (ABR). Nine patients had repeat PTA and ABR evaluations and vestibular testing 1 year after study entry. Five patients had an additional assessment following intraperitoneal AG therapy. The baseline auditory function of the patients was significantly poorer than controls at 6.0 and 8.0 kHz by PTA (P < 0.05), whereas the results of ABR testing were not different. Of the 14 patients, 4 (28%) had hearing loss, 3 of whom had a history of intravenous AG therapy. In contrast, none of the patients who received intraperitoneal AG therapy only, or without a history of AG therapy, had hearing loss (P < 0.005). There was no evidence of progressive loss of hearing acuity with time or associated with intraperitoneal AG therapy. One patient had findings of vestibular dysfunction. We conclude that children receiving peritoneal dialysis are at risk of AG ototoxicity. While intraperitoneal administration of AG may be associated with less ototoxicity than intravenous administration, further study is necessary to verify this finding and close monitoring of AG levels remains mandatory irrespective of the route of administration. PTA rather than click-evoked ABR appears to be the best indicator of abnormal hearing acuity in this population.