Background:
Vitiligo is a common chronic disease of pigmentation, which may be accompanied by audiological abnormalities.

Material and methods:
The aim of this study was to assess vitiligo patients in terms of hearing thresholds using conventional pure tone audiometry (0.25 to 8 kHz), high frequency pure tone audiometry (10 and 12.5 kHz), as well as Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAEs). We correlated the audiometric findings with vitiligo duration and severity. The study included 75 subjects with a mean age of 29.7 ± 8.6 years. There were 50 vitiligo patients and 25 age and gender matched healthy controls who had never had any audiological condition or exposed to excessive noise.

Results:
Only 24% of vitiligo patients had high frequency sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) using conventional audiometry and the majority (76%) had bilaterally normal hearing. The majority (90%) of vitiligo patients had SNHL in extended high frequency audiometry. There was a statistically significant difference between the cases and controls regarding TEOAE SNR at 5 kHz, and nearly half of the normal hearers had an abnormal TEOAE. Vitiligo patients were found to have subclinical inner ear dysfunction compared with the controls. There was a statistically significant correlation between PTA and age of the patients but not with vitiligo duration or severity.

Conclusions:
The audiometric findings of the vitiligo group and the statistically significant differences from the control group suggest a subclinical involvement of the cochlea, probably related to the vitiligo condition, but not affected by vitiligo duration or severity. We therefore recommend the use of extended high frequency audiometry and otoacoustic emission tests for early detection of inner ear involvement in vitiligo.