Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

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Abstract
SUDDEN SENSORINEURAL hearing loss (SSNHL) is a frequent disease and occurs in 1 per 3000 inhabitants in the industrial world.1 It is sudden in onset, isolated, or associated with vertiginous episodes or tinnitus. The physiopathologic mechanism of this cochlear disorder is unclear, and a series of causative factors—including viral infection,1-4 microcirculatory disorders,5 and immunopathologic1,6 and autoimmune factors1,7,8—are considered to be possible explanations. In general, the treatment of SSNHL is nihilistic (no therapy) or is based on the use of blood flow–promoting drugs with or without glucocorticoids. However, general guidelines, founded on "evidence-based medicine," are not available, although there are many individual studies9-15 in the literature of the successful treatment of SSNHL. Furthermore, most of these studies lack suitable control groups to prove the therapeutic effect of the respective agent and include only small patients cohorts. The objective of this study was to evaluate, in a retrospective analysis of 603 patients, the therapeutic effect of glucocorticoids for the treatment of SSNHL.