Hyperbaric oxygen therapy as salvage treatment for sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a prospective controlled study

The most commonly used treatment for sensorineural sudden hearing loss (SSHL) in clinical practice is the administration of steroids; however, a favorable result is not always obtained. We studied 58 patients who failed to recover after primary treatment with IV steroids, 44 of these met our inclusi...

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Published in:	European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology Vol. 272; no. 7; pp. 1659 - 1666
Main Authors:	Pezzoli, M., Magnano, M., Maffi, L., Pezzoli, L., Marcato, P., Orione, M., Cupi, D., Bongioannini, G.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-07-2015
Subjects:	Aged Audiometry, Pure-Tone - methods Female Glucocorticoids - administration & dosage Head and Neck Surgery Hearing Hearing Loss, Sensorineural - diagnosis Hearing Loss, Sensorineural - therapy Hearing Loss, Sudden - diagnosis Hearing Loss, Sudden - therapy Humans Hyperbaric Oxygenation - methods Male Medicine Medicine & Public Health Middle Aged Neurosurgery Otology Otorhinolaryngology Prospective Studies Salvage Therapy - methods Treatment Outcome Salvage treatment Sudden sensorineural hearing loss Hyperbaric oxygen treatment Sudden deafness
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Summary:	The most commonly used treatment for sensorineural sudden hearing loss (SSHL) in clinical practice is the administration of steroids; however, a favorable result is not always obtained. We studied 58 patients who failed to recover after primary treatment with IV steroids, 44 of these met our inclusion criteria (mean age 50.7, 27 males, range 30–74). We treated 23 patients (mean age 47.3, 16 males, age range 22–74) with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) (2.5 ATA for 60 min for 15 treatments), while 21 (mean age 54.5, 11 males, age range 22–71) patients refused to be treated and served as a non-randomized control group. Patients treated with HBO had a mean improvement of 15.6 dB (SD ± 15.3), with 1 of them completely healed, 5 with a good recovery, 10 with a fair recovery and 7 unchanged. Patients who were not treated had a spontaneous mean improvement of 5.0 dB (SD ± 11.4) with 3 patients with a good recovery, 1 patient with a fair recovery and 17 patients unchanged. Mean improvement was significantly better in patients treated with HBO compared to controls ( p = 0.0133). Patients with worst hearing had the greater degree of improvement whether or not they were treated in the first 10 days after the onset of the hearing loss or between 11 and 30 days. In conclusion, hyperbaric oxygen therapy can lead to significant improvement of pure tone hearing thresholds in patients with SSHL who failed primary corticosteroid treatment and are within 4 weeks of the onset of deafness.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	0937-4477 1434-4726
DOI:	10.1007/s00405-014-2948-z