[Analysis of clinical characteristics and treatment outcome of bilateral and unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss].
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the clinical characteristics and treatment of bilateral and unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) and figure out the differences between bi-and unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and further improve the diagnosis and treatment of SSHL.


METHODS
The retrospective study was based on 334 patients with SSHL (315 with uni-SSHL versus 18 with bi-SSHL) and all of the patients were in-patients.


RESULTS
The incidence of bi-SSHL was 5.4% of patients with SSHL. There was no significant difference on the clinical features such as age, gender, interval from onset of symptoms to seeing doctors and associated symptoms between bi-and unilateral SSHL. 27.8% of the patients with bi-SSHL had preexisting diabetes mellitus, which was significantly higher than the rate of the uni-SSHL (9.8%, P<0.05). Hearing loss was more profound in the uni-SSHL ones, however, the hearing improvements were better than their counterparts. The overall effective rate of the two groups was 58.4% and 13.9% respectively. Earlier diagnosis and treatment with steroids would have a good prognosis.


CONCLUSIONS
Unilateral SSHL is more common than bilateral SSHL. Bilateral SSHL occurs more common with preexisting diabetes mellitus and has worse prognosis compared to unilateral SSHL. The earlier steroid treatment the better prognosis.
Ai
Wei
W
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032, China.
Tong
Busheng
B
Liu
Yehai
Y
Duan
Maoli
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D046088:Hearing Loss, Unilateral / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult