Hearing loss from facelift: I woke from facelift surgery to find I had lost about half of my hearing. What happened?

The cranial nerves involved in hearing are nowhere near the site of surgery of the facelift. If there is no obstruction in the extra auditory canal than the hearing change would be coincidental.

Without examining you, it's difficult to determine where the issue lies. Please see an ENT specialist who can address your concerns.

You are describing a very unusual situation as there does not exist a direct relationship between a facelift and a nerve (sensorineural) hearing loss. I am wondering about several questions:Was your facelift performed under general anesthesia? Did you have any anesthetic related problems? Have you ever had an audiogram (hearing test) prior to the facelift procedure? What does your current audiogram show? Have you been seen by an ENT doctor (otolaryngologist) regarding your hearing loss?

Thankfully nerve injury after facelift surgery is a rare situation. While the facial nerve is the nerve that concerns both surgeons and patients the most since it moves the facial muscles, it is again luckily a rarely injured nerve. More commonly injured is the greater auricular nerve that runs along the back of the ear and provides sensory innervation to the upper ear. Luckily though again, with careful surgery this should not happen often at all.It appears you experienced "sudden sensorineural hearing loss" which is due to injury to the nerve of hearing (the cochlear nerve). While rare, this can occur as a result of undergoing general anesthesia (it is believed that a small blood clot can travel to the cochlear nerve and injure it). It is hard to say if this is indeed what happened in your case but all things considered it is a likely scenario as other patients have experienced hearing loss during other forms of surgery.The loss of sensation to your face occurs from injury to another nerve completely different and separate from the hearing nerve.Thank you,Dr. Jafri

I'm sorry to hear of your hearing loss.The nerve that is most susceptible to injury during a facelift is cranial nerve VII.  The nerve which transmits hearing is cranial nerve VIII.  It is very unlikely that the facelift surgical procedure could have injured the cranial nerve VIII.You mentioned a neurological  issue before your facelift.I would recommend that you have auditory testing by an otolaryngologist and possibly a neurological consultation to find the origin of your hearing loss.