Conductive Hearing Loss
Pronunciation: kun-DUK-tiv HEER-ing LOSS
Also written as: CHL — Conductive Hearing Loss
A type of hearing loss resulting from a mechanical problem in the outer or middle ear that impedes the conduction of sound vibrations to the inner ear, as distinct from sensorineural loss.
Full Definition
Conductive Hearing Loss (CHL) arises when sound transmission through the outer ear canal, tympanic membrane, or ossicular chain is disrupted or obstructed by conditions such as cerumen impaction, otitis media, tympanic membrane perforation, or otosclerosis. Because the cochlea and auditory nerve remain intact, CHL is often amenable to medical or surgical intervention, and may be temporary. On an audiogram, CHL is characterised by an air-bone gap—a significant difference between air-conduction and bone-conduction thresholds. Editors must carefully distinguish 'conductive' from 'sensorineural' in clinical documents, as conflation of these terms constitutes a clinically significant error. The abbreviation 'CHL' is acceptable on subsequent use in clinical reports.
Usage
Usage note: Do not abbreviate to 'CHL' without first spelling out in full. Distinguish carefully from sensorineural and mixed hearing loss; mislabelling the type of loss in a clinical document is a serious editorial error. 'Conductive' is not hyphenated.
In Context
- "The audiological report confirmed conductive hearing loss bilaterally, with a mean air-bone gap of 25 dB HL across the speech frequencies." — Pre-operative ENT audiology report
- "The editor queried whether 'conductive' had been confused with 'sensorineural' in the patient's history section, given the reference to cochlear pathology." — Clinical document quality review