[Treatment of sudden hearing loss]

Abstract

A total of 27 patients affected by sudden idiopathic deafness (SID) and 3 with sudden idiopathic anacousia (SIA) were treated within 10 days of onset of the disorder. The treatment consisted of intramuscular or per os administration of corticosteriods for 10 days and the simultaneous administration of carbogene for 5 days. At the 5th day of corticosonic treatment, if audiometry did not reveal complete recovery, the treatment was associated for 7 days with Destrane 500 ml. The cases included neurosensorial deafness of 30 dB or more over at least 3 adjacent frequencies and arising over a 12 hour period. Soft cord deafness was not included in the study. The following variables were analyzed: 1) patient age; 2) extent of the hearing loss: average tone threshold for the frequencies of 500 -1000-2000 Hz equal to or better than 70 dB HL (group A); tone threshold ranging between 71 and 89 dB HL (group B), tone threshold ranging from 90 to 110 dB HL (group C), anacousia (group D); 3) audiometric curve; 4) presence or lack of vertigo. After treatment 25 subjects (83%) indicated a recovery ranging from good to complete. It is significant that among this 83% there were 12 subjects, 9 with profound deafness and 3 with anacousia. The therapeutic association adopted made it possible to achieve two-fold activity: anti-edemagene and hemorheological. The most highly implicated etiology for SID was viral causing not only neural but also endothelial damage and leading to acute microcirculatory insufficiency.