The effect of acute hypoxia on hearing

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a health problem that has an increasing importance in society. Recurrent arterial oxygen desaturations that develop with apneas occur for many times during the night. In the literature, many studies about audition in patients with OSAS are present. In this study, the effects of hypoxia on audition that develop during the apnea attacks in OSAS were investigated experimentally.The study was conducted in Inonu University Audiology Laboratory after the approval of Inonu University Medical Faculty Experimental Animal Researches Ethic Committee (Protocol Number: 2011/A-102) In the study, 15 Wistar albino rats with a weight of 250-300 g were used. Anesthesia was performed by 40 mg/kg Ketamine and 5 mg/kg Xylazine through intramuscular administration. Then the processes were applied in the silence.The study involved 15 rats with normal auditory functions. Only tracheotomy was performed in the control group. Auditory assays were made with DP gram before and after the process. In hypoxia group, hypoxia was created by making apnea attacks that lasted at least 10 seconds after the tracheotomy process. Auditory assays via DP gram were performed before tracheotomy and during hypoxia in the hypoxia group.In the statistical analysis, SPSS for Windows Version 17.00 program was used. The measurable variants were presented as Mean +/- Standard Deviation. Wilcoxon two-sample paired test was used for the changes within the groups. P<0,05 was accepted as statistically significant.In the control group, statistically significant values were not found. In the hypoxia group, statistically significant differences were detected in high frequencies.In conclusion, cochlear reply decreases in high frequencies during hypoxia that was created by apnea attacks.Keywords: OSAS, apnea, hypoxia, autoacoustic emission, rat