Intratympanic steroid injection for treatment of idiopathic sudden hearing loss.
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a clinical trial of intratympanic steroid injection for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss in subjects who failed oral steroid therapy.


METHODS
Open-label methylprednisolone injection clinical trial in a tertiary neurotologic referral center. Twenty subjects (14 males; 6 females) received 4 injections within a 2-week period (4 days apart). Hearing, dizziness, and tinnitus were evaluated before and after treatment.


RESULTS
There were no serious unexpected adverse events and 2 types of expected adverse events (tympanic membrane perforation, nausea after injection). No increases in dizziness or tinnitus lasting longer than 24 hours were observed after injections. One of 20 (5%) improved to near-normal hearing. In addition, there was statistically significant improvement in 4-frequency pure-tone average and speech discrimination score at 1 month after treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Four intratympanic injections of methylprednisolone improved pure-tone average or speech discrimination scores for a subset of sudden hearing loss subjects that failed to benefit from oral steroids.


CONCLUSIONS
A clinical trial of intratympanic injections for idiopathic sudden hearing loss was successfully completed and promising results were found.
Slattery
William H
WH
House Ear Institute, House Ear Clinic, Los Angeles, California 90057, USA. wslattery@hei.org
Fisher
Laurel M
LM
Iqbal
Zarina
Z
Friedman
Rick A
RA
Liu
Nancy
N
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D015552:Injections, Intralesional; D008297:Male; D008775:Methylprednisolone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011446:Prospective Studies; D020127:Recovery of Function; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014432:Tympanic Membrane / Q000187:drug effects*
D008775:Methylprednisolone