In trecut, pierderea senzorineurală a auzului era denumită „surzirea nervului”.

Acum ştim că în
majoritatea cazurilor, problema este generată de urechea internă şi nu de nervul auditiv. Totuşi,
continuăm să grupăm cele două probleme, deoarece urechea internă şi nervul auditiv sunt conectate şi
trebuie să funcţioneze împreună. In general problema principala este deteriorarea acelor mici firisoare
de par care convertesc energia mecanica in energie electrica.

Cauzele pierderii senzorineurale a auzului sunt variate însă, în general, pot fi împărţite în două categorii:
congenitale şi dobândite.

 Pierderea congenitală a auzului este prezentă la naştere şi este cea mai comună problemă la
nou-născuţi. Poate fi moştenită sau cauzată de dezvoltarea anormală în stadiile fetale ale vieţii.
Înainte de dezvoltarea vaccinului, rubeola maternă sau Pojarul german era cauza comună a
pierderii congenitale a auzului.
 Pierderea dobândită a auzului, care se petrece după naştere, poate fi cauzată de o gamă largă
de factori. Aceştia includ traume, înaintărea în vârstă), expunerea la zgomotele provocate de
aparate sau arme de foc, sindromul Meniere şi meningită.

Pierderea auzului cauzata de afectarea transmiterii sunetelor (surditatea de transmisie): suntele

nu ajung la nivelul urechii interne; aceasta situatie apare in cazul dopurilor de ceara sau a unei
excrescente care blocheaza transmiterea sunetelor, ca de exemplu in otoscleroza;

Tratament

Cand ambele urechi sunt afectate sunt commune protezele auditive

In cazul unui nivel mai profund al pierderii auzului, uneori protezele auditive nu ajută suficient. Acest
lucru este din cauză că pierderea senzorineurală a auzului determină distorsionarea sunetelor.
Amplificarea sunetelor prin intermediul protezelor auditive le face să fie mai puternice, dar nu neapărat
mai clare. Chiar şi protezele auditive de bună calitate pot suna distorsionat dacă urechea internă este
grav afectată.

În cazul de pierdere severă până la profundă a auzului cand aparatele auditive nu mai dau rezultate, ar
trebui să aflaţi mai multe despre implanturile cohleare. Implantul cohlear este un dispozitiv electronic
implantat chirurgical - astfel, ocoleşte partea afectată a urechii pentru a stimula direct nervul auditiv.
Spre deosebire de protezele auditive care doar amplifică sunetul, implanturile cohleare transformă
undele sonore în impulsuri electrice într-un mod care simulează auzul
*filmulet*

O singură ureche
În cazul în care suferiţi de pierdere senzorineurală a auzului uşoară până la severă într-o singură ureche,
atunci cea mai comună metodă de tratament este proteza auditivă. Totuşi, întrucât protezele auditive
necesită ca auzul să fie funcţional într-un anumit grad, acestea nu ajută în cazul pierderii profunde a
auzului.
În cazul pierderii profunde, implanturile cu conducţie osoasă Baha® pot transmite sunetul prin os, de la
urechea afectată, în partea cealaltă către urechea funcţională. Acest lucru facilitează înţelegerea vorbirii
în situaţiile zgomotoase şi reduce atenuarea sunetelor din partea surzită.
 A Possibility for Restoring Hearing Loss
When it comes to some kinds of hearing loss, there's no shortage of potentially helpful devices ranging from hearing aids to
cochlear implants.

However, one area of hearing research is directed at curing age-related hearing loss and other kinds of deafness. That research
engine was kick-started about 15 years ago by Dr. Edwin Rubel, professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery and of
physiology and biophysics at the UW's Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center.

In the hope of helping people who have nerve deafness, Dr. Edwin Rubel studies
chicks' ability to re-grow their hearing nerve cells.

Rubel studies the regenerative properties of hair cells, which

aren't hairs at all. They're actually small cells with protein-filled
protrusions. These cells line one part of the cochlea, a snail-
shaped structure in the inner ear. The protrusions, which
bunch together like microscopic tufts of grass, are mechanical
receptors that vibrate when struck by sound waves. The hair
cells turn those vibrations into electrical nerve impulses, which
travel through ganglion cell bodies and into the cochlear nerve,
where those impulses are sent into the brain and processed as
sound.

Many kinds of hearing loss, including those that are age-

related, congenital, or environmental (such as repeated
exposure to a loud noise or ear trauma), are actually due to
loss of hair cells, and that loss was believed to be permanent.

More than a decade ago, Rubel's team made a remarkable discovery: hair cells actually regenerated on their own in the ears of
birds.

"That was a great surprise to us, obviously," Rubel said. "We thought that once the hair cells were damaged, they lost them for
life, and that they'd have hearing loss that would last for life."

The discovery, which was made simultaneously with another group outside the UW, helped make hair cell regeneration a sudden
gathering point for hearing loss research.

Although a few devices exist to bring sound to those with hearing loss, hair cell studies are attempting to cure deafness.
Treatments such as cochlear implants, which artificially translate sounds into electrical impulses and send them to the brain, try to
bypass the lost hair cells.

"That's been a wonderful treatment for people with profound hearing loss," Rubel said. "But if you really want to cure hearing loss,
hair cell research is the only game in town."

After years of extensive research on hair cells in a variety of organisms, scientists have determined that hair cells naturally
regenerate in nearly all vertebrate animals, except mammals, such as humans. Rubel and others are trying to transfer their
knowledge of hair cells and the means through which the cells regenerate, in an attempt to bring about a similar process in
humans.

"We're trying to better understand how the bird does it, and we'd like to know how we can use information from birds to trick
mammals into doing the same thing," Rubel explained.

Beyond seeking findings that can be applied to ameliorating hearing loss, though, Rubel is interested in the biology of the central
nervous system. He examines development of the brain, pathways of the auditory system, and how experience influences both
behavior and the development of the brain's hearing centers.

One of Rubel's experiments looked at hearing loss in a Bengalese finch, which learns only one song in its lifetime. When it lost its
hearing, the bird's song deteriorated, as expected. But when the bird regained its hearing, the song returned. Not a tune similar to
the earlier version, he said, but exactly as before, which meant there was a template for the song in the bird's brain.

That sort of esoteric research appeals to Rubel, who has been studying the nervous system for four decades. Clinical applications
of scientific research are also important to the longtime faculty member.

"If my lab could help create a cure for hearing loss, that would be great," said Rubel, who came to the UW in 1986.

This is the right place for such developments, Rubel said, because of the collaborations possible within the Bloedel Center and
throughout the UW.

"The progress we made in this area wouldn't have been possible without the collegial atmosphere that characterizes the UW,"
Rubel said. "You can literally find wonderful collaborators right across the street. We can routinely find colleagues with experience
and expertise we don't have who are almost always eager to collaborate, and that's immensely valuable."