Revista Cubana de Medicina Militar (May 2021)
Hearing health in Afro-Colombian victims of the armed conflict, survivors of improvised explosive device
Abstract
Introduction: In 2002 an improvised explosive device exploded over a church with Afro-Colombian civilians sheltering there, generating a massacre. The survivors presented important health problems without a complete study to date. Objective: To establish the hearing health profile in the community of survivors of the "Bojayá Massacre", Chocó. Methods: Based on clinical audiological evaluations with anamnesis, otoscopy, audiometry, speech audiometry and impedance in 61 survivors, a descriptive study was carried out including sociodemographic variables, risk factors, auditory signs and symptoms, and audiological diagnoses. Results: 72,13 % of the participants were women. In addition to exposure to the explosion of an improvised explosive device, which affected indoors (78, 69 %), and in adjacent outdoors (3,28 %) or more distant locations, the main auditory risk factors found were previous infection of ears (26,87 %). 70,49 % suffered from tinnitus and 14,75 % from vertigo. 81,97 % of survivors (n=50) presented alterations in their hearing, without previous study. 81 % of those who encountered some degree of hearing loss reported a history of exposure to the blast within the closed space of the church. Conclusions: The hearing health profile of the community of survivors of the Bojayá massacre, Chocó, was characterized by the presence of hearing difficulties, tinnitus, earache, vertigo, a history of acoustic trauma, and tympanic perforations. The main diagnosis found was bilateral conductive hearing loss.
