Hearing Loss From Sepsis

[lenb122]

My wife came down with septic shock in December 2011. She was in ICU for 1 month. During the month, she received a multitude of antibiotics  to kill the infection. In addition she had dialysis, plasma ferisus,, was on a feeding tube, and  a ventilater. She then went through 3 weeks of Rehabilitation. She is gaining strength, but one of the more damaging effects was a substantial loss of hearing.
Is there any victims of Sepsis that experienced hearing loss resulting from the infection or the heavy medication that they received? If so, has it come back, and how long did it take?

Any information regarding this would be greatly appreciated.

Len B. . ,

[Rachele M Orsini, Au.D.]

Hello, I have sent a message to the administrators at the medhelp website to move your question to the otology side of the forum to discuss the sepsis side effects.

In terms of hearing loss from antibiotics-yes this is very common in life saving IV antibiotics and most of the time the loss is permanent.  Has your wife had an audiological exam?  If she is diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss, her options will be to consider the use of hearing aids.  If her loss is diagnosed as mixed or conductive then she may benefit from other treatments which can be discussed with an otologist.

Thank you,

Rachele M. Orsini, Au.D.

[afrika315]

Hi, Len.  I suffered from septic shock myself, for 2 weeks.  Apparently, I was bad, but your wife was worse.  I lost my hearing as well, which I noticed 1 week after my hospital stay.  No one paid attention to me, truthfully.  If it  had been addressed at that time, I probably would still have my hearing.  Hyperbarics is a good treatment, but most be done within 2 weeks of the loss in order for it to be very successful.  Blessings to you and your wife.  She is a proven survivor, and she is not alone.  God bless.

[afrika315]

As per two experts I spoke to, top in their fields of ENT and Hyperbarics, 68% of those who lose their hearing regain it within 7 months to 1 year after they lose it.  So there is hope for us.

[concreteprincess]

Back in 2013, I went into septic shock as well as developed Guillain Barre Syndrome. As a result I have sensorineural hearing loss to low frequencies to my right ear. I am using a hearing aid but find the hearing aid amplify the noises I can hear already. To date, I experience cognitive impairment and my hearing has not improved. I am curious if the hearing loss and cognitive impairment is related to my infection or lack of oxygen. I was intubated for 2 weeks in ICU.

[Carol3345]

I have a 25 year old friend who survived severe life threatening sepsis, yet after 6 weeks, became totally deaf from the drugs used.

He has been told this is permanent,

Any more information I can find to help?

How rare is this?

How can it happen weeks layer, after he seemed recovered?

Why are such drugs still being used?

[GalFromAus]

In November 2011 I had a hysterectomy and as a result contracted Golden Staph and Sepsis.  In the following months I noticed my hearing loss and I had not even considered that the hearing loss could have stemmed from that illness episode.  My hearing continued to decline slowly and I eventually tried a cochlear implant in my worst ear (after experimenting with hearing aids) but the implant only helps very minimally.  It seems I have damage to my auditory nerves.  After a time I wondered if the hearing loss was caused by the antibiotics I had received but I was informed that those medications are not associated with hearing loss - I made a point of finding out the names of the medications.  Then I wondered if the hearing loss could have been connected to the Golden Staph, and only recently wondered about the Sepsis. I guess I will never know, but I had wanted to draw attention to my Doctors as a form of feedback for future reference, not because I wanted to blame somebody.

As an aside, two years ago I was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and wondered if the two were connected, but I have been advised that the hearing issue is a different set of nerves (auditory), and MND is motor nerves.  So, please don't assume the two are connected.  I just like to put the information out there for anyone doing research.