Sudden Deafness with Special Reference to Anticoagulant Treatment

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Abstract
In 1961–1965, a total of 102 cases of sudden deafness with no symptoms other than those emanating from the statoacoustic nerve were examined and treated at the Otolaryngological Hospital of the University of Helsinki. Fifty two patients were treated with Heparin, all of them reporting for treatment within 3 days of the loss of hearing. The remaining 50 patients were managed without Heparin and came for treatment 4 days-4 weeks after the onset of the deafness. The latter material, consequently, cannot be used to control the efficaciousness of Heparin therapy. The average improvement in hearing during the mean observation period of 139 days was 29 dB for the Heparin-treated cases. The hearing threshold was 30 dB at the most (NPL-standard) at follow-up a total of 19 patients and in 13 of them at the most 15 dB. The corresponding results for the non-Heparin group were 4 and 2. It was necessary in 2 cases to discontinue the Heparin therapy for reasons obviously due to the drug. Fifty seven patients had subjective vertigo in connection with the loss of hearing. Unilateral disturbance of vestibular function was established initially in 52 patients in the ear that sustained the acute loss of hearing.

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