title: The effects of oral isotretinoin (13-Cis retinoic acid) on the inner ear: a prospective clinical study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of oral isotretinoin, a drug used in the treatment of acne vulgaris, on hearing function determined by serial audiology examinations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty patients with acne vulgaris were included in this study. Nine patients were excluded from the study because of inconsistent follow-up. The hearing of each participant was tested with pure tone audiometry and transient evoked autoacoustic emissions before and two and four weeks after treatment with isotretinoin (0.3-0.6 mg/kg/day) in the remaining 31 patients (62 ears).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The differences between the mean values of the pre-treatment and post-treatment pure tone hearing thresholds at 1000, 2000, 4000 and 6000 Hz frequencies were statistically significant (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the pre-treatment and post-treatment values at 250 and 500 Hz frequencies (p > 0.05). The difference between the pre-treatment and post-treatment signal-noise ratio values of the transient evoked autoacoustic emissions was not significantly different (p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that the use of isotretinoin may cause bilateral hearing threshold changes. Further animal and human studies are required to investigate and characterize isotretinoin-induced neurophysiological alterations in hearing.
authors.affiliation: . drmehmetakdag@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akdag
authors.forename: Zeynep M
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Akkurt
authors.forename: Aylin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gul
authors.forename: Derya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ucmak
authors.forename: Beyhan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yılmaz
authors.forename: Engin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sengul
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Topcu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D007758:Ear, Inner / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015474:Isotretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015474:Isotretinoin