Background: Hearing impairment has frequently been described in β-thalassemia patients with a significant impact on the patients' quality of life. Most studies provided evidence of deferoxamine (DFO) dose-related ototoxicity, however, the data is scarce regarding deferasirox (DFX) as a sole iron chelator.
Aim: We aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and vestibular dysfunction in regularly transfused β-thalassemia patients who had been treated with DFX film coated tablets.
Purpose: Behavioral evaluation of language development is an important index for the usefulness of cochlear implantation. However, it could not apply to infants and very young children. It is useful to adopt an objective measure to examine speech discrimination in this population.
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