Albert F.W. Grimm: Wisconsin's Most Prolific German American Author

Objective: To carry out a systematic literature review on the main alterations in the auditory system of children and adolescents with AIDS. Methodology: This is a systematic literature review study, which has the following guiding question: what are the alterations in the auditory system found in children and adolescents with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome? The search search strategy was carried out by combining five descriptors extracted from DeCS (Descriptors in Health Sciences) in two languages: Portuguese and English. The following descriptors were used: “hearing loss”, “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”, “children”, “adolescents” and “central hearing loss”. Inclusion criteria were: original articles, publications from 2011, in English and Portuguese that involved the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in children and adolescents. Results: 10 articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected. The studies reported audiological alterations at the peripheral and central levels. In relation to the peripheral auditory system, the most described complication was hearing loss and, although the public in question is susceptible to different types of this pathology, the most common one found in the literature was conductive hearing loss. With regard to the central level of hearing, alterations in central auditory processing were described in the studies, as the central nervous system can serve as a reservoir for HIV, affecting the central auditory pathways. Conclusion: The most common hearing alterations in children and adolescents affected by the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in the literature were: conductive hearing loss and complications in central auditory processing.