title: [Analysis of the effectiveness in patients who were treated with a course of drugs for sudden deafness which was present for at least three weeks].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate and analyze the significance of a course of glucocorticosteroids and other drugs for the treatment of patients with sudden deafness present for at least three weeks.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review was done on 48 patients (58 ears) with sudden deafness present for at least three weeks or more, who were admitted to the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Peking University People's Hospital from November 2002 to July 2010. The patients were divided into three groups by the type of hearing threshold. The different treatments were used in the three groups. The SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In patients with a low tone hearing loss (6 ears), 83.3% improved. For patients with a high tone loss (22 ears) 31.8% improved. For a flat tone hearing loss (30 ears) 36.7% improved. For patients with a hearing loss more than one year (12 ears) there was improvement in 58.3% (7 ears) of the patients. In 9 ears which had a flat tone hearing loss of 90 dB or greater before treatment, 77.8% (7 ears) improved with 33.3% (3 ears) having a significant improvement. In 21 ears which had a hearing threshold was under 90 dB, 14.3% (3 ears) improved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the treatment of patients with sudden deafness which was longer than 21 days the treatment was significant, especially for those who had a 90 dB or greater flat-tone type hearing threshold before treatment. Even though the hearing loss was more than a year in some patients there was still a benefit from treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing 100034, China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li-sheng
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Rui-ming
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids