Boston Marathon Ear Injuries Studied at Research Institutions

Ninety-three people with ear injuries sustained during the bombing at the Boston Marathon last year are being studied. This study is one of a few that examine non-war related blast injuries. The study is being led by Dr. Alicia Quesnel, a specialist in otology and neurotology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Here is a summary of the study:

The primary aim of the study is to correlate tympanic membrane perforation size with rates of healing, including the success of tympanoplasty. Secondary aims include understanding the effect of steroids on sensorineural hearing loss after acoustic trauma, and relating distance from the blast to sensorineural hearing loss and tympanic membrane perforation.

Another reference to the Boston Marathon bombing and the above study recently appeared in the Boston Globe.

Here is an excerpt of the article pertaining to ear injuries:

David Yepez is among those still grappling with ear damage. He is back playing football and wrestling, a rebound his Andover family finds hopeful. Second-degree burns on his left arm have healed, as has the wound from a 3-inch piece of shrapnel embedded deep in his left leg.

As his father, Luis Yepez, puts it, “There’s some beauty to being 15 and how the body recovers.”

But both of the teenager’s ear drums were perforated, and Yepez, now 16, has some hearing loss and ringing in his left ear, a nearly constant, high-pitched tone, “the sound you hear after going to a concert,” he said. It bothers him when he is trying to sleep or study.

“It’s pretty much going to be there forever,” he said his doctor told him, “and it may get gradually worse as I age.” [emphasis added]

Dr. Alicia Quesnel, an ear specialist at Mass. Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, is leading a study following 93 patients who suffered ear injuries in the Marathon blasts. It is one of the few studies to track hearing-related problems in such a large group that was not exposed to military explosions.

“Unfortunately for many of them, even if the hearing has improved, the tinnitus [ringing in the ears] seems to be a persistent problem,” she said.

The sensation — in which a patient hears ringing, hissing, roaring, whistling, chirping, or clicking when no sound is present — is created by the brain in response to ear damage. There is no cure.

Too bad the physician failed to offer that particular sufferer any hope. I wonder if other victims of the Boston Marathon bombing received positive information about how to live with tinnitus, and the potential treatments being researched and developed?

References:

http://journals.lww.com/thehearingj...Editorial___Boston_Marathon_Bombings__.2.aspx

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...le-injuries/NOJ8kKRewvPxjK7LZ3tjJP/story.html

 

At least something good is coming out of that incident.

 

I agree.

But I wonder how many people were given prophylactic treatment to possibly prevent tinnitus development after their injuries?

And the quote that it will probably "be there forever" and "may get gradually worse" is not helpful to tinnitus sufferers and is not necessarily accurate.

The tinnitus community--practitioners and sufferers--need to offer treatment advice and give hope to people newly diagnosed. Tinnitus Talk is one voice in that community offering hope; so too will Tinnitus Network when it is launched. But we also need more healthcare practitioners to rethink tinnitus. It is a treatable condition, and most people do return to normal lives.

 

Thanks for posting!

 

I'm sorry to say this shows the lack of effort and to some level ignorance of ENTs. I'm not saying they are all bad here, but there seems to be a collective misinformation or lack of desire to attain such information on part of ENTs who are supposed to be knowledgeable of ongoing research. These people are supposed specialists and yet they often are befuddled when I seem to know more about the field than they do. And that's downright insulting as a patient to have to pay money to see someone who seems to just frankly not give a damn.

 

I agree fully. ENTs couldn't careless about tinnitus.

 

Some ENTs probably care, but they feel helpless. Yet many ENTs don't perceive this affliction as something important. And that's what really hurts. Not offering prophylactic treatment when appropriate or being unaware of current tinnitus research is also unacceptable.