Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss in the Dominant Hearing Ear

XUAN Han; YAN Wenya; LI Xiaohua; WEN Yingying; ZHANG Ziyu; ZHANG Fan; LU Xing; LI Lu; ZHANG Wenjing; MENG Juan; QIN Zhaobing

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-2922.2024.05.010

Abstract：Objective To report clinical characteristics including the word recognition score(WRS)and speech-frequency pure-tone average threshold(PTA)before and after treatment and prognosis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss(SSHL)in the dominant hearing ear.Methods Patients with unilateral SSHL who were hospitalized from January 2020 to December 2022(n=1 56)were divided into two groups based on contralateral ear hearing(with or without sensorineural deafness).Clinical characteristics,audiological patterns and prognosis were compared between the two groups.Results Patients with contralateral hearing loss showed higher proportions of older age,male gender,hyperlipidemia and hypertension than those without contralateral hearing loss(P＜0.05),with worse initial speech-frequency PTA and WRS in the affected ear(P＜0.05).Following treatment,Speech-frequency PTA and WRS in the affected ear improved significantly in both groups(P＜0.001),more so in those without contralateral hearing loss(P＜0.05),with a total effectiveness rate of 51.3％,compared to 28.2％in patients with contralateral hearing loss(P＜0.05).Pre-and post-treatment speech-frequency PTA and WRS were highly negatively correlated(P＜0.001),with exceptions in some cases.Conclusion Patients with SSHL in the dominant hearing ear are more likely to be older and male,have hyperlipidemia and hypertension,and show worse hearing loss and speech discrimination,which are also risk factors for poor prognosis.WRS is more sensitive in predicting prognosis than speech-frequency PTA.Its independent changes,separate from speech-frequency PTA,may help prognostic assessment in patients with SSHL.