Prevalence of Hearing Loss After Open-Heart Surgery: A Systematic Review

TL;DR

This study reviews how often hearing loss occurs after open-heart surgery, based on global research findings.

Contribution

The study systematically reviews global literature to quantify the prevalence of hearing loss following open-heart surgery.

Findings

16 studies were included in the final analysis of hearing loss after open-heart surgery.

Evidence suggests a notable prevalence of hearing changes following open-heart surgery.

Findings were analyzed by age and sex to determine patterns in hearing loss occurrence.

Abstract

Today, due to the increase in the incidence of heart problems in people, we
see an increase in the number of heart surgeries worldwide. Hearing
disorders in the form of hearing loss have been reported as one of the side
effects of this kind of surgery in some studies. Considering the evidence of
the effect of open-heart surgery on patients’ hearing loss, this systematic
review study was conducted to determine the frequency of hearing loss after
open-heart surgery.

To carry out this systematic review, studies that investigated hearing loss
after open-heart surgery in Iran and the rest of world, published in Persian
or English, and various international electronic databases including
PubMed®, Web of Science, Scopus®, and authentic Persian
sources (e.g., Irandoc and Scientific Information Database)
until the end of 2021 have been indexed.

In the initial review, 46 of the 2230 initially searched articles had the
conditions for further review. After checking the articles’ title and
abstract and the working method of the studies and removing duplicates and
incomplete articles, a total of 16 articles were included in the study.
Then, their results were analyzed as the frequency of hearing loss after
open-heart surgery by age and sex.

The review of various studies confirms the fact that after open-heart
surgery, the existence of evidence of hearing changes is not far from
expected.

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