경찰병원에 이명, 난청을 주소로 내원한 현역 경찰관의 청각학적 고찰

Background and Objectives: There is a lack of data about police officers’s hearing thresholds in Korea. We evaluate audiometric study in police officers who visit national police hospital to complain of tinnitus or hearing disturbance. Materials and Methods: We undertook a retrospective study using review of medical records. We divided 3 groups to age (I: 31–40, II: 41–50, III: 51–59), determined the thresholds of hearing according to frequency and site in each group. Results: The hearing was significantly worse in left side than right side at 6 kHz in group III (p<0.05). All groups showed the hearing threshold was below 30 dB at 125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1k Hz, 2k Hz, and above 35 dB at 4, 6, 8 kHz at both side. The hearing threshold was increasing according to age. The hearing threshold was significantly worse at all the frequencies in group III than group I (p <0.05). Conclusion: Police officers who visit national police hospital to complain of tinnitus or hearing disturbance had both high frequencies hearing loss and tinnitus. Hearing loss was worse according to age-related acoustic trauma. Further research and prevention of hearing loss should be needed. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2012;23:70–73)