May 19, 2024, is the 34th National Day for the Disabled. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, as of 2023, the number of disabled people in mainland China has reached 85.91 million, in order to further protect the livelihood of people with disabilities, promote the development of people with disabilities, and enable them to better return to society and enjoy a normal life. In recent years, the mainland has continued to increase the research, application and implementation of science and technology for the disabled, and the "13th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating the Moderately Prosperous Process of Disabled Persons" and the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Development of Disabled Persons" have put forward clear requirements for scientific and technological assistance for the disabled.
According to statistics, there are about 27.8 million people with hearing impairment in mainland China, ranking first among the five major disabled groups, including visual disabilities, physical disabilities, and intellectual disabilities, accounting for 33.5% of the total number of disabled people in the country. In the huge group of hearing impaired patients, nearly half of the hearing impaired patients belong to presbycusis, in addition, congenital heredity, acquired otitis media, sudden deafness, systemic diseases, drug poisoning, accidents, etc. are all important factors that threaten people's hearing health.
The first "deaf killer" - middle ear cholesteatoma
In the otolaryngology clinic, otitis media is a very common disease, whether adults or children, the incidence is not low, some of them otitis media patients come to the hospital, after further examination and diagnosis of "middle ear cholesteatoma", with the development of the disease, gradually appear hearing loss, and even some patients do not come to the hospital until deafness.
Middle ear cholesteatoma can occur at any age, generally from the middle ear, resulting in pus, perforation of the eardrum, hearing loss, and then develop into the inner ear, resulting in dizziness, headache, if it continues to enter the skull, resulting in intracranial infection, brain abscess, brain herniation, and even life-threatening.
For patients with mild general symptoms, the condition is generally alleviated through conservative treatment, but for patients with more severe symptoms, surgical treatment is generally required to alleviate the symptoms, and for some patients with bony damage to the middle ear or ossicular chain destruction, surgery such as ossicular chain reconstruction needs to be considered for repair."
The first "deafness emergency" - sudden deafness
Sudden deafness is a common emergency in otolaryngology, which is characterized by rapid onset and rapid progression, and most sudden deafness reaches its highest point of hearing loss within minutes, hours, or 3 days.
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Dr. Deng Meitao said: "According to the 2015 edition of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Sudden Deafness in China, the time of treatment for sudden deafness has a little relationship with the prognosis, and 72 hours after sudden deafness is the golden treatment period for treatment."
The first "genetic hidden danger of deafness" - hereditary deafness
In the ear ward of Chengdu Renpin, there is a group of patients with congenital deafness, they have been pressed the "mute button" since birth, and hearing is a critical period of language development at the age of 0-3, because children in this period cannot hear the outside world due to hearing impairment, which seriously affects the formation and development of their language ability, so there is a phenomenon of "deafness and muteness".
According to the China Disabled Persons' Federation, there are more than 4.6 million hearing-impaired children in the mainland, including about 800,000 children under the age of seven, and 30,000 hearing-impaired babies are born for every 20 million newborns. Hearing loss can be a major obstacle to normal life, and children with severe hearing loss may not be able to communicate with others, leading to social separation and further damage to physical and mental health.
Huang Ligao, Director of Chengdu Renpin Inpatient Department/Chief Specialist of the Department of Otology, introduced: "With the progress of society and the development of science and technology, the emergence of hearing aids and cochlear implants has helped patients with hearing impairment restart the "volume button" and enter the rich and colorful world. ”
Clinically, hearing loss is divided into conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, and mixed hearing loss according to its nature. Some patients can recover or improve their hearing through medication, surgery, etc., but for some patients with mild or moderate hearing loss who cannot recover through treatment, hearing aids are generally recommended. As an assistive device, hearing aids can compensate for hearing loss to a certain extent, repair the quality of life that has been reduced due to hearing loss, and help improve the social ability of hearing-impaired patients to participate more in recreational activities.
For some people with severe or very severe hearing loss, hearing aids are not enough to help them meet their communication needs to hear clearly and understand. At present, cochlear implantation has been clinically used as a routine method for the treatment of severe to profound deafness, allowing patients to switch from "silent" to "sound". After cochlear implantation, patients need to go through auditory language rehabilitation training, so that they can hear sounds, distinguish sounds, understand language, open their mouths and speak gradually to establish a complete auditory language system.
Director Huang Ligao reminded: "If a patient has ear stuffiness, earache, hearing abnormalities, etc., we must pay attention to it, and seek medical treatment, early intervention, and early treatment can restore hearing health to the greatest extent." Currently, hearing loss can be avoided with treatment for most ear diseases. If the hearing loss is irreversible, measures such as wearing hearing aids or implanting cochlear implants can help the hearing patient to get out of the predicament to the greatest extent. ”