Source: DGNews  |  Posted 9 years ago

By Paula Moyer
Special to DG News

SAN DIEGO, CA -- September 23, 2002 -- Patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) respond well to a combination course of steroids and antiviral therapy, and those with vertigo have an even more favourable prognosis than those without vertigo, according to Dr. Mani Zadeh.

Although steroid therapy is used routinely for SSNHL, antiviral therapy has been controversial, said Dr. Zadeh, chief resident of otolaryngology at Columbia University in New York. He also noted that SSNHL patients with vertigo typically have a worse prognosis than those without.

Collaborating with him in the research, presented here at the 106th annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, were Dr. Ian Storper and Jaclyn B. Spitzer, PhD, both professors of otolaryngology at Columbia University.

The investigators reviewed the charts of 51 patients, 30 men and 21 women, who had presented to the otology service over the past eight years. All patients in the chart review had been seen and had begun treatment within seven days of onset of SSNHL, which was defined as at least a 10-decibel loss that occurred in at least three frequencies. At the time of treatment, the patients