Introduction:

In 2002 an improvised explosive device exploded over a church with Afro-Colombian civilians sheltering there, generating a massacre. The survivors presented important health problems without a complete study to date.

Objective:

To establish the hearing health profile in the community of survivors of the “Bojayá Massacre”, Chocó.

Methods:

Based on clinical audiological evaluations with anamnesis, otoscopy, audiometry, speech audiometry and impedance in 61 survivors, a descriptive study was carried out including sociodemographic variables, risk factors, auditory signs and symptoms, and audiological diagnoses.

Results:

72.13% of the participants were women. In addition to exposure to the explosion of an improvised explosive device, which affected indoors (78.69%), and in adjacent outdoors (3.28%) or more distant locations, the main auditory risk factors found were previous infection of ears (26.87%). 70.49% suffered from tinnitus and 14.75% from vertigo. 81.97% of survivors (n=50) presented alterations in their hearing, without previous study. 81 % of those who encountered some degree of hearing loss reported a history of exposure to the blast within the closed space of the church.

Conclusions:

The hearing health profile of the community of survivors of the Bojayá massacre, Chocó, was characterized by the presence of hearing difficulties, tinnitus, earache, vertigo, a history of acoustic trauma, and tympanic perforations. The main diagnosis found was bilateral conductive hearing loss.

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