title: [Prospective clinical multi-center study on the treatment of sudden deafness with different typings in China].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the necessity of subtyping for the treatment of sudden deafness.
  
  
  METHODS
  The international standardized clinical research methods, the unified design and program were used in the study. The sudden deafness patients between 18 to 65 years old were recruited, whose duration was less than two weeks with no medication. The patients were divided into four types according to the hearing curve: type A was acute sensorineural hearing loss in low tone frequencies, type B was acute sensorineural hearing loss in high tone frequencies, type C was acute sensorineural hearing loss in all frequencies and type D was total deafness. Each type had four different treatment programs, based on the unified designed randomized table.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total of 1024 cases with single side sudden deafness were recruited in the study by 33 hospitals in China from August 2007 to October 2011, including 492 male cases (48.05%), and 532 females (51.95%). The average age was (41.2 ± 12.8) years old. By classification of audiogram, among the 1024 cases, 205 cases were type A (20.20%), 141 cases were type B (13.77%), 402 cases were type C (39.26%), 276 cases were type D (26.95%). The curative effects of different types were analyzed, type A had the highest rate of 90.73%, type C was 82.59%, type D was 70.29% and type B had the lowest rate of 65.96%. Significant difference of curative rate between different types was detected (χ(2) = 231.58, P = 0.000). Regarding the curative results of the 1024 cases, 378 cases were recovery (36.91%), 229 cases were excellent better (22.36%), 198 cases were better (19.34%) and 219 cases were poor (21.39%). Glucocorticoid was effective for each type and the combined treatment was better than any single medication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Different types of the hearing curves of sudden deafness have different curing effect, it indicates that different types should use different treatments. It'is important that sudden deafness should be treated according to the types of the hearing curve. The type in low tone frequencies has the best curative effect, followed by the type in all frequencies. The type in high tone frequencies and the total deafness type has poor curative results.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003638:Deafness; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids