Overview On Mechanism Of Drug-induced Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Drug's ototoxicity have been focused on many years ago. However, there is still increasing 30~40 thousand deaf children every year, about 50% of them is induced by ototoxic drugs. Although most of the ototoxic drugs have already been recognized by clinic doctors and pharmacologists. It is rare reported that sensorineural hearing loss caused by valproic acid(VPA). We report one patient with hearing loss induced by VPA and review with literatures. VPA may lead to reversible or unreversible hearing loss. Clinicans should pay attention to this problem. We suggest that the epilepsy patients be monitored by audiologic testing while they treated with this agent. Once small changes in hearing are detected, VPA should be withdrawn to avoid unreversible hearing loss.