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Marrow proliferation as a cause of hearing loss in beta-thalassaemia major

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2007

D Thio ,
V Prasad ,
P Anslow  and
P Lennox
D Thio*
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, UK
V Prasad
Affiliation:
Head and Neck Unit, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
P Anslow
Affiliation:
Department of RadiologyOxford Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK
P Lennox
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, Oxford Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Mr D Thio, Department of Otolaryngology. Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton TA1 5DA, UK. E-mail: daniel.thio@yahoo.co.uk
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Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this report was to highlight the fact that hearing loss in thalassaemia patients can be related to marrow expansion affecting the ossicles, resulting in a conductive loss.

Case report:

A six-year-old boy with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassaemia developed a unilateral hearing loss shortly after commencing desferrioxamine therapy. Otoxicity was assumed, but the deficit was later found to be of a conductive nature, due to marrow proliferation within the ossicular chain as a consequence of the disease process – a phenomenon previously unreported in the literature.

Conclusion:

It is important to elucidate the precise nature of new onset hearing loss in patients receiving iron chelation therapy, in order to avoid unnecessary cessation of much needed medication, on the assumption of ototoxicity.

Keywords

ThalassaemiaHearing Loss, ConductiveDesferrioxamine
Type
Clinical Records
Information
The Journal of Laryngology & Otology , Volume 122 , Issue 11 , November 2008 , pp. 1253 - 1256
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 2007

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Footnotes

Presented at the European Society of Paediatric Otorhinolaryngology (ESPO), Rome, Italy, 25–30 June 2005.

References

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