Medical-Legal Evaluation of Hearing Loss

Medical-Legal Evaluation of Hearing Loss, Third Edition includes the most accurate and current developments in the field with more than 250 new references. A comprehensive guide on hearing loss and the law, it examines claims, court cases, and the evolution of hearing conservation. This text addresses age-related hearing loss, genetics of hearing loss, and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL); with a newly revised international standard (ISO-1999, 2013) that presents a comprehensive predictive model for NIHL, critical in medical-legal evaluation. Also examined is hearing loss due to toxins, trauma, and disease as well as the effects of cardiovascular risk factors, race, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, included tutorial discussions of acoustics, hearing, and hearing testing will be valuable to attorneys and other nonclinicians.

New or expanded topics include:

• The relationship of hearing loss to brain disorders
• Job fitness
• Accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Blast injury
• Recreational music and hearing loss
• Hypothesis of progressive NIHL after noise cessation
• Solvent ototoxicity
• Appropriate exchange rate for predicting noise hazard
• The American Medical Association s method of measurement of hearing disability

This third edition provides practical guidance for expert witnesses and legal practitioners and is essential for otolaryngologists, audiologists, occupational physicians, attorneys handling hearing loss claims, and claims management professionals.