Ocular and optic nerve head ischemic disorders and hearing loss

PURPOSE: To investigate in an exploratory study whether any evidence suggests that ophthalmic ischemic disorders, particularly of the optic nerve head, are associated with hearing loss. METHODS: We investigated prospectively 583 consecutive patients in eight primary ocular diagnostic groups for associated hearing loss: nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (n = 81), normal-tension glaucoma (n = 36), primary open-angle glaucoma (n = 138), other types of glaucoma (n = 142), ocular arterial occlusive disorders (n = 22), retinal vein occlusion (n = 89), ocular vasculitis (n = 42), and a miscellaneous group (n = 33). The patients and their relatives were questioned in detail for any evidence of hearing loss in the patients. RESULTS: In the logistic regression model, with presence or absence of hearing loss as the dependent variable and gender, age, and diagnosis as independent variables, gender ( P = .003) and age ( P < .0001) were found to be significantly associated with hearing loss. No significant association was found with any of the ophthalmic disease groups evaluated in this study. Whenever any significant association with any ophthalmic disease group was seen, this result could be explained by examination of the association between diagnosis and age, which showed a significant ( P < .001) association. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that there is a significant ( P < .001) relationship between hearing loss and aging—the older the population, the higher the incidence of hearing loss—but the study showed that there is no association between hearing loss and ocular and optic nerve head ischemic disorders. The two represent unrelated and independent disorders.