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Review
. 2025 Apr 18;14(8):2811.
doi: 10.3390/jcm14082811.

Current Role of the Nonsteroid Treatment of Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (ISSNHL): A Narrative Review

Concepción Rodríguez-Izquierdo  1   2   3 , Mayte Herrera  1   2 , Anastasiya Avdiyuk  1 , Daniel Rodríguez-Ocaña  1 , Guillermo Plaza  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Current Role of the Nonsteroid Treatment of Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (ISSNHL): A Narrative Review

Concepción Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHNL) is an abruptly appearing hearing loss. The etiology remains unclear, although vascular pathologies, viral infections, or autoimmune disease contribute to the understanding of this pathology. Systematic steroids are often used as the first-line treatment because of their anti-inflammatory effect. However, there remains controversy about the use of steroids and other alternative treatments, as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), exploratory tympanotomy, prostaglandin, N-acetylcysteine, or defibrinogenation therapy. In this study, we aim to review the various treatment options currently available for sudden hearing loss, with the objective of advancing our understanding of this condition and clarifying information to guide future clinical practice guidelines.

Keywords: exploratory tympanotomy; hyperbaric oxygen therapy; nonsteroid treatment; prostaglandin; sudden sensorineural hearing loss; treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Multimodal treatment options for ISSNHL.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Methodology followed in this narrative review. CPGs: Clinical Practice Guidelines; RCT: randomized controlled trial; SR: systematic review.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Corticosteroid treatment for ISSNHL over the years [6,7,10,11,12,13].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Stage approach to therapy of sudden hearing loss. Published by Plontke et al. [7]; used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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