A Study of Clinical and Audiometric Profile in Patients Presenting with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Abstract

Background: To assess the clinical and audiometric profile in patients presenting with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL).The study also aimed to find out any possible etiology of SSNHL, prognostic factors and effectiveness of treatment. Prospective, open label, randomized study conducted in department of ENT at the Ram Lal eye and ENT hospital attached to Government medical college, Amritsar, Punjab, India. Methods: 50 patients of either sex aged between 18 to 50 years suffering from unilateral or bilateral onset SSNHL included in the study on the basis of predetermined clinical criteria. The hearing assessments of patients were done before and after the treatment with tuning fork tests, pure-tone and impedance audiometry. Results: Most of the patients of SSNHL presented with unknown etiology. Steroid treatment gave a statistically significant improvement in pure tone averages. Maximum improvement is observed in patients who started treatment within one month of developing SSNHL. Post-treatment outcomes were not influenced by age of the patient and type of the pure tone audiometry graph. The presence of vertigo and diabetes are bad prognostic factors for hearing outcome in SSNHL. Conclusions: Most of the cases of sudden sensorineural hearing loss have unknown etiology. Patients with associated DM and vertigo are having poor recovery of hearing. Early starting of treatment gives maximum improvement of hearing.