Otologic findings in war victims in Golcstan provincc

Bachground: Ear, as vestibuloauditory system, can be damaged by many causes. In army personnel who have been exposed to trauma, ear can be traumatized. Many of ear injuries are irreversible. Because of eight years war in Iran and as far as there has not been any study in Golestan province about such abnormalities, this research was done to determine te common otologic findings in war victims of Golestan province. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study on 256 war victims of Golestan, which were chosen with simple randomized sampling. Hearing loss, tinnitus, othorea, vertigo and tympanic membrane perforation as otologic findings, and the kind of trauma were considered. B.C over than 15db considered as hearing loss. Hearing loss was divided in few groups and the questionnaire was filled for all of the sample population. Data was analyzed by SPSS software and Fisher exact test. In this study, the sample population was exclusively male of whom 21.5% suffered from audiologic problems. 94.6% of them had hearing loss (83.6% with tinnitus) and all the others had tinnitus without clinical hearing loss, but there were some findings of hearing loss in their otologic findings. 80% of hearing loss was bilateral, 10.9% on the right and 9.1% on the lefi side. Type of hearing loss in 89% was neuronal. And in 88% it was in high frequencies. The intensity of hearing loss in 48.5% of sample population was 15-30db, 6.4% of them had tympanic membrane rupture, only 3.6% of them had othorea and none of them had vertigo. Although there are few years passed from the end of the war but the hearing abnormalities are still common problems in war victims. Therefore it is necessary not only to manufacture sound protective instruments but also to proper special trainings for army personnel been in war front. On the condition where the sound can cause reversible lesions, the health care personnel should be ready to look afier victims. Also the risk factors should be omitted to preserve the remained hearing in the war victims.