ABSTRACT
References 438
Occupational hearing loss is a specific disease due to repetitive injury with established
symptoms and objective findings. The diagnosis of occupational hearing loss cannot be
reached reliably solely on the basis of an audiogram showing high-frequency sensori-
neural loss and patients’ histories that they worked in a noisy plant. Accurate diagnosis
requires a careful and complete history, physical examination, and laboratory and
audiologic studies. Numerous entities such as acoustic neuroma, labyrinthitis, ototoxi-
city, viral infections, acoustic trauma (explosion), head trauma, hereditary hearing
loss, diabetes, presbycusis, and genetic causes must be ruled out, as they are responsible
for similar hearing loss in millions of people who were never employed in noisy
industries.
