Annual Hearing Tests Recommended for Individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease

What are the kidneys and how do they work?

The human body has two kidneys, which are each about the size of a fist and located on either side of the spine at the lowest level of the rib cage. The kidneys perform their life-sustaining job of filtering and returning to the bloodstream about 200 quarts of fluid every 24 hours. About two quarts are removed from the body in the form of urine, and about 198 quarts are recovered. The urine we excrete has been stored in the bladder for anywhere from 1 to 8 hours.

What is Chronic Kidney Disease?

Chronic kidney disease includes conditions that damage your kidneys and decrease their ability to keep you healthy. If kidney disease gets worse, wastes can build to high levels in your blood and make you feel sick. You may develop complications like high blood pressure, anemia (low blood count), weak bones, poor nutritional health and nerve damage. Also, kidney disease increases your risk of having heart and blood vessel disease. These problems may happen slowly over a long period of time. Chronic kidney disease may be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. Early detection and treatment can often keep chronic kidney disease from getting worse. When kidney disease progresses, it may eventually lead to kidney failure, which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life.  CKD affects more than 10% of Americans, it’s important to be informed, if not for yourself, but for friends and family.

How are Chronic Kidney Disease and Hearing Loss Related?

The link between CKD and hearing can be explained by structural and functional similarities between tissues in the inner ear and in the kidney. Additionally, toxins that accumulate in kidney failure can damage nerves, including the nerves in the inner ear. According to the American Kidney Foundation, the two main causes of chronic kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure (responsible for up to two-thirds of the cases).  Both diabetes and high blood pressure are also risk factors for hearing loss.

Older adults with moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a higher prevalence of hearing loss than those of the same age without CKD, according to research published in American Journal of Kidney Diseases, the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation.

An Australian research team assessed over 2,900 individuals aged 50 and older, including 513 with moderate chronic kidney disease.  Of those with CKD, over 54% reported some level of hearing loss compared to only 28% of the rest of the group. Nearly 30% of the CKD participants showed severe hearing loss compared with only 10% of the non-CKD participants.

These findings point to the importance of annual hearing testing for everyone with kidney disease.  People with CKD should have hearing assessments earlier in life, and early treatment of any hearing loss.  Treatment of underlying hearing loss in CKD patients can improve quality of life and lead to better management of underlying conditions which could, in turn, potentially preserve hearing function.

Ready to set up an appointment for your baseline hearing test?  Give our office a call at 410-672-1233.