[Horton's disease and corticosteroid-responsive hearing loss]

Abstract

Background: Temporal arteritis (TA) is a inflammatory panarteritis of the elderly, which may diffuse to all large arteries. Five to 10% of the patients present nonclassical signs with respiratory, vascular, cardiologic, neurologic or hepatic manifestations. We reviewed eighteen cases of TA and deafness in the literature and report two new cases.

Case reports: Our two patients developed sudden, bilateral and corticosteroid responsive hearing loss. One patient developed hearing loss before the diagnosis of TA.

Conclusion: The mechanism of deafness is probably explained by vertebrobasilar or terminal cochleovestibular arteritis. While the diagnosis of TA is usually easy, it may be difficult in other circumstances. Sensorineural hearing loss may be the first symptom of TA. Prompt recognition and treatment may lead to partial or total improvement of hearing loss in 55% of the cases.