A comparison of the short-term outcome in patients with acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to compare the short-term outcome of patients with acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss (ALHL) treated with steroid alone, diuretics alone or combination treatment.


METHODS
Between April 2000 and March 2009, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 156 patients with a diagnosis of ALHL. All patients were followed up until improvement or for 8 weeks from the initial examination. Patients were treated with steroid alone (n = 49), diuretics alone (n = 40), combination treatment (n = 46) or they received neither steroid nor diuretics (n = 21).


RESULTS
The steroid-diuretic combination therapy for ALHL showed significantly better results than the steroid or diuretic treatments alone (p < 0.05). There were no clinically significant differences in the outcome between the steroid- and diuretic-alone treatments.


CONCLUSIONS
The etiology of ALHL is described as both an endolymphatic hydrops and an autoimmunological mechanism so that, as expected, the steroid-diuretic combination therapy was more effective than the steroid or diuretic treatments alone.
Morita
Shinya
S
Department of Otolaryngology, Kushiro City General Hospital, Kushiro, Japan. shinyamorita@yahoo.co.jp
Suzuki
Masanobu
M
Iizuka
Keiji
K
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001623:Betamethasone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004234:Diuretics, Osmotic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007547:Isosorbide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D004234:Diuretics, Osmotic; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D001623:Betamethasone; D011239:Prednisolone; D007547:Isosorbide