29.

PENDRED SYNDROME
Overview & Facts

Pendred syndrome is coined after the physician Vaughan Pendred— who diagnosed several children
with this kind of syndrome. It is a genetic condition that can affect child’s hearing, balance, and thyroid
gland that can increase in size— which may later on called as goiter.

Children with in born Pendred syndrome may start to experience hearing loss upon entering the age of
3; it can be from less hearing and progress over time. There is a possibility that the child’s hearing can go
back to its past level. It can occur in both ears or bilateral hearing loss.

Types & Symptoms

SYMPTOMS

The syndrome may show major symptoms in the patients like:

Goiter

Problems associated with balance

Sensorineural hearing loss

Enlarged vestibular aqueduct

Diagnosis & Medications

DIAGNOSIS

A general physician may seek the help of clinical doctors or otolaryngologist to assess the structure of
the inner ear and if there is a presence of thyroid. These physicians will determine the pattern, amount,
and timing of the patient’s hearing loss.

MRI. This process utilizes inner ear imaging techniques to describe the traits of the said syndrome.
The traits may include cochlea with too few turns.

Computed tomography. It is somehow similar to MRI procedure— to look for the characteristic of the
syndrome.

Medical History. The physician may ask you different questions like “When did the hearing loss occur?”
“Is it a progressive hearing loss or in born.”

Diagnosing the syndrome is needed to help the physicians to give proper treatment and medications.

TREATMENT

Treatments are accessible to the patients who have Pendred syndrome. Since the syndrome includes
balance problems, thyroid, and hearing conditions so 2 or more physicians are needed to perform the
treatment of the syndrome. Your physicians in the whole treatment may include the following:
Endocrinologis

Primary care physician

Audiologist

Speech-language pathologist

Clinical geneticist

Otolaryngologist

Genetic counselor

To delay the progression of having hearing loss, prevent from involving in a play, sports, and events that
may result to head injury and other serious conditions. If ever you will be participating in some sports,
wearing a head protection is required to protect the head from bumping.