Cochlear Implantation Following Neurobrucellosis-Related Bilateral Profound Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Case Report and Literature Review

Brucellosis is the most common bacterial zoonosis worldwide, and neurological involvement - neurobrucellosis - can cause bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) that does not respond to antibiotic therapy. We report cochlear implantation (CI) outcomes in a 60-year-old man with confirmed neurobrucellosis who developed bilateral profound SNHL that provided no functional benefit after a six-month binaural...

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Cochlear implantation can be considered for patients with bilateral profound hearing loss caused by neurobrucellosis, but evidence is based on case-level data only; no change to standard CI candidacy assessment protocols is warranted.

Neurobrucellosis is a rare but under-recognised infectious cause of bilateral profound hearing loss, and documenting CI outcomes in these patients expands the differential for sudden bilateral deafness.

1. 01Neurobrucellosis (a bacterial nervous system infection) can cause bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss.
2. 02Cochlear implantation was performed successfully in a patient with neurobrucellosis-related deafness.
3. 03This is a case report and literature review — the evidence base is very limited.
4. 04Clinicians should consider infectious etiologies, including brucellosis, in unexplained bilateral profound SNHL.
5. 05Published in Cureus; peer-reviewed but lower-tier evidence (case report level).

PMID

42453847

DOI

10.7759/cureus.110831.

Journal

Cureus

Publication type

case_report

Evidence level

4

Sample size

1

Population

Single patient with neurobrucellosis-related bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss

Intervention

Cochlear implantation