The International Tinnitus Journal

Comparing Neurootological Complaints in Patients at the End of Their Professional Lives (51-60 Years) with Those During the First Phase of Retirement (61-70 Years)

Geriatrics defines the branch of medicine that treats all problems peculiar to old age and the aging, including the clinical problems of senescence and senility. In the full chain of years of the human life, a special period is humans' last decade of professional life (i.e., 51- 60 years) and their first decade of retirement (i .e., 61-70 years). For this study aimed at comparing neurootological complaints of persons in this period of their lives, we examined large samples of European neurootological patients: Group A consisted of 1,965 persons aged 51- 60 years, and group B consisted of 1,032 persons aged 61-70 years. Of the 11 vertigo and nausea symptoms evaluated, group A demonstrated 2.68 signs and group B 2.49 signs per individual. Acoustic subjective symptoms of tinnitus were exhibited in 55.42% of group A patients, and hearing loss was present in 63.92% of these patients. In group B, 52.62% of patients exhibited tinnitus, and 68.31 % of patients had hearing loss. Our experimental neurootometric investigations exhibited the following rates of abnonnal test findings in group A: butterfly calorigrams, 71.86%; stepping craniocorpography, 72.01 %; and pure-tone audiometry of bone conduction, 37.66% in the right and 47.07% in the left ear. Among group B patients, abnormal test findings were noted as follows: butterfly calorigrams, 69.86%; stepping craniocorpography, 74.03%; and pure-tone audiometry of bone conduction, 44.57% in the right and 55.43% in the left ear.