Does lithotripsy cause hearing loss

Objective To determine whether lithotripsy with the Dornier MPL9000 has any significant effect on the hearing of either patients or operators, as determined by pure tone audiometry. Patients and method Twenty patients had audiometry prior to a single exposure to lithotripsy and one hour after treatment. Staff were monitored on a 3 monthly basis. Results No evidence was found to suggest that single or repeated exposure to the noise emitted by this Dornier lithotripter was associated with any hearing loss. Conclusions These results suggest that the risk to the hearing of patients exposed to lithotripter noise is negligible. Cochlear damage resulting from excessive noise depends on both the intensity of the sound and the duration of exposure