Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-7-2025

Comments

This article is the author's final published version in OTO Open, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2025, Article number e70070.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1002/oto2.70070.

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated an ototoxicity monitoring program (OMP) for improving audiologic follow-up in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING: Tertiary academic center.

METHODS: Two hundred and forty patients were recommended for chemotherapy between January 2017 and June 2022. An OMP was implemented in March 2021; every patient received an audiology referral and was contacted to schedule a pretreatment audiogram. Patients were divided into pre-OMP and post-OMP cohorts. Main outcome measures included rates of pretreatment audiograms, posttreatment audiograms, posttreatment otologic symptoms, and hearing aid utilization.

RESULTS: There were 131 patients evaluated pre-OMP and 109 evaluated post-OMP. The mean age for all patients was 62.8 ± 11.9 years; 76.3% were male. After the implementation of the OMP, a significantly higher proportion of patients received a pretreatment audiogram (66.1% vs 34.4%, P < .001), with enrolled patients being 3.8 times more likely to obtain 1 (95% confidence interval: 2.2-6.6), P < .001). There was a significant increase in reported otologic symptoms after implementing the program (18% vs 36%, P = .002). However, the rate of hearing aid utilization decreased after OMP implementation (pre-OMP: 33% vs post-OMP: 13%, P = .02).

CONCLUSION: Implementation of an OMP significantly improved the proportion of HNC patients that underwent pretreatment audiograms prior to systemic therapy; however, audiologic follow-up remained largely unchanged in the posttreatment period.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 4.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

PubMed ID

40196215

Language

English

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.