The Outcome in Patients with Acute Low-Tone Sensorineural Hearing Loss

GAO Xiaowei; LIU Liyan; HUANG Yongwang; WANG Yanyou; LIU Jing

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-2922.2013.04.022

Abstract：To investigate the effectiveness of diuretics and intratympanic steroids in treating patients with acute low-tone sensorineu-ral hearing loss (ALHL). Methods We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 153 patients with a diagnosis of ALHL. The patients were divided into two groups based upon electrocochleogram (ECochG) and furosemide test results:group A (normal on both tests, n=76)and group B (abnormal on either ECochG and/or furosemide test, n=77). Patients in each group were ran-domly selected to receive one of the following three therapes:intratympanic steroids alone (the steroid group), diuretic treat-ment alone (the diuretic group) and steroid/diuretic combination treatment (the combination group). All patients were treated for 14 days and followed up for 6 months. Results The differences in the rates of complete hearing recovery, hearing improve-ment, tinnitus improvement and time to improvement were statistically significant among different therapies for both groups A and B. Within Group A, the differences were statistically significant between the steroid and diuretic groups and between the combination and diuretic groups, but not between the steroid and combination groups;whereas within Group B, the differences were statistically significant between the combination and steroid groups and between the combination and diuretic groups, but not between the steroid and diuretic groups. The recurrence rate was not significantly different among all groups. Conclusion Our results indicate that intratympanic steroid is effective in ALHL with minimal side effects. Addition of a diuretic can be de-termined based upon ECochG and furosemide test results to augment treatment effectiveness.