Deafness (also known as hearing loss or impairment) is the partial or complete loss of the sense of hearing.
It may be subdivided etiologically into
- conductive: impairment of the passage of sound waves from the auricle to the inner ear
- sensorineural: impairment localizes to the inner ear, internal acoustic canal, cerebellopontine angle, or vestibulocochlear nerve
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central: impairment is central to the vestibulocochlear nerve i.e. in the brain
- sometimes these causes are counted as a subtype of sensorineural deafness
- functional: no organic cause identified