Make an Appointment
To schedule an appointment with the Penn Center for Adult-Onset Hearing Loss, please call 215-662-2784 or email CAOHL@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Each year, tens of thousands of adult hearing loss patients obtain hearing aids and thousands more move on to cochlear implantation. For most of these individuals, the cause of their hearing loss is never determined and providers have no alternative therapies to offer. The Penn Center for Adult-Onset Hearing Loss is committed to changing care for genetic hearing loss disorders.
What is Adult-Onset Genetic Hearing Loss?
Adult-onset hearing loss is a form of progressive deafness that affects one third of adults over the age of 60. It has been linked to concerns common to hearing loss at any age — including social isolation and depression, decreased economic and educational success, and cognitive decline.
Hearing loss can have a number of causes. About half of all early-onset cases in developed countries are related to a difference in one or more of a patient's genes. Some genetic hearing loss variants cause only hearing loss (non syndromic hearing loss) while others can cause hearing loss in addition to issues impacting other parts of the body (syndromic hearing loss).
Despite substantial advances in our understanding of genetics and its implications for diagnosing hereditary hearing loss in children, the genetics of adult-onset hearing loss is not as well-understood.
Why Choose the Penn Center for Adult-Onset Hearing Loss?
The Penn Center for Adult-Onset Hearing Loss is the first center dedicated to the genetics of adult-onset hearing loss. The center's mission is to identify the genetic causes of hereditary hearing loss in adults, develop novel therapeutic options to stop its progression or prevent future cases, and provide genetic counseling for those currently experiencing it.
The center is a collaboration between Penn ENT, Penn Translational Medicine and Human Genetics and the Penn Medicine BioBank (PMBB). Patients may be seen by a team of audiologists, otologists, and genetic counselors, who collaborate with basic and translational researchers, geneticists, and members of the BioBank on an active and ongoing basis.