Intratympanic steroids in severe to profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss as salvage treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Intratympanic steroids are being increasingly used in the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) after the failure of systemic therapy. This study evaluated the efficacy of administering intratympanic dexamethasone (ITD) as a salvage treatment for severe to profound SSNHL.


METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of patients who presented with severe to profound SSNHL between January 2007 and December 2009. ITD was given about 14 days after the initial systemic treatment. Successful recovery was defined as complete or partial recovery using Sigel's criteria. We compared the results of treatment between the severe SSNHL (S-SSNHL) and profound SSNHL (P-SSNHL) groups.


RESULTS
All the patients in the S-SSNHL group showed significant improvement, as compared to the P-SSNHL group (P=0.017). The recovery rate after the initial systemic treatment was 36% (9/25) in the S-SSNHL group and 18.1% (4/22) in the P-SSNHL group (P=0.207). In comparison, the recovery rate of ITD as a salvage treatment was 37.5% (6/16) in the S-SSNHL group and 5.5% (1/18) in the P-SSNHL group (P=0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
Our comparative study dose not support the efficacy of ITD as salvage treatment for patients with P-SSNHL as compared with that for S-SSNHL. We recommend that patients with P-SSNHL be informed about the low efficacy of ITD as a salvage treatment.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Jong Dae
JD
Lee
Moo Kyun
MK
Park
Chi-Kyou
CK
Lee
Kye Hoon
KH
Park
Byung Don
BD
Lee