Is golf bad for your hearing?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2835

Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2835
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2835

Analysis

Christmas 2008: Sport

Is golf bad for your hearing?

M A Buchanan, ear, nose, and throat specialist registrar¹, J M Wilkinson, audiological scientist², J E Fitzgerald, chief audiological scientist², P R Prinsley, ear, nose, and throat consultant¹

¹ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich NR4 7UY , ² Department of Audiology, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

Correspondence to: M A Buchanan malcolm_buchanan123@hotmail.com

M A Buchanan and colleagues investigate the possible hazardsof modern drivers

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 55 year old right handed man presented to the ear, nose, andthroat outpatient clinic with tinnitus and reduced hearing inhis right ear. Clinical examination was unremarkable. His puretone audiogram showed an asymmetrical sensorineural hearingloss, worse on the right, with a decrease on that side at 4-6kHz (fig 1) typical of a noise induced hearing loss.¹ He hadbeen playing golf with a King Cobra LD titanium club three timesa week for 18 months and commented that the noise of the clubhitting the ball was "like a gun going off." It had become sounpleasant that he had been forced to discard the club.

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Fig 1 Pure tone audiogram showing sensorineural hearing loss on the right, with a noise induced drop at 4-6 kHz

Magnetic resonance imaging of his internal acoustic meati showedno abnormality, and we deduced that his asymmetrical sensorineural. . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Aural Assault on the Links?: Martin Tepper, et al.
bmj.com, 29 Dec 2008 [Full text]
Re: Aural Assault on the Links?: Malcolm A Buchanan
bmj.com, 31 Dec 2008 [Full text]
Coefficient of restitution: Peter W Hart
bmj.com, 5 Jan 2009 [Full text]
Letter to author: Ian T Logan
bmj.com, 5 Jan 2009 [Full text]
Re: Aural Assault on the Links?: Jonathan R Roberts
bmj.com, 5 Jan 2009 [Full text]
Is golf bad for your hearing?: James R Scott
bmj.com, 8 Jan 2009 [Full text]
So, what was his handicap?: Barry M Gold
bmj.com, 9 Jan 2009 [Full text]
Why is Titanium louder? Material's analysis: Dietmar Giljohann
bmj.com, 9 Feb 2009 [Full text]
tinnitus and golf drivers - It happened to me?: Louie Kish
bmj.com, 22 Aug 2009 [Full text]