title: [Etiology of severe/profound, pre/perilingual bilateral hearing loss in Cantabria (Spain)].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To know the etiology of preiperlingual bilateral hearing loss in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  All the patients diagnosed with bilateral severe/profound, pre or perilingual hearing loss at Sierrallana and Marqués de Valdecilla Hospitals (Cantabria, Spain) during the last 20 years were included in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A hundred patients were diagnosed with bilateral severe/profound pre/perilingual hearing loss. The most frequent etiology was hereditary (49%), followed by severe perinatal hypoxia (11%), ototoxicity (5%), meningitis (3%), hyperbilirubinemia (3%) and rubella (2%). In 21% of cases was not known.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The two most frequent etiologies found in severe/profound hearing loss in children in our area were hereditary and non infectious perinatal problems. Infectious disease were scarce. Will decrease when genetic test were used as clinical basis.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de ORL, Hospital Sierrallana, Torrelavefa. cmorales@mundivia.es
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morales-Angulo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallo-Terán
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Azuara
authors.forename: J Rama
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Quintela
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013030:Spain