Enlarged vestibular aqueduct as cause of manifestation of hearing loss in adolescents and adults

The malformations in the development of the inner ear often cause congenital sensorineural hearing loss; however, the descriptions of clinical cases of age-related hearing loss due to temporal bone malformations have been appearing in foreign and domestic scientific literature more frequently over the past few years. The enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome is of most interest from the point of view of inner ear malformations that lead to late manifestation of hearing loss. This syndrome poses certain difficulties for diagnosis and choice of treatment strategy. The article presents information on the enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome clinical manifestations, modern diagnosis methods, treatment and rehabilitation options available for adult patients based on the summarization of contemporary scientific works and on the examples of clinical cases from personal work experience.