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A new interesting article has been published in ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec. 2019 Dec 18:1-6. doi: 10.1159/000504581. and titled:

Hearing Improvement after Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss as a Predictor of Vestibular Schwannoma.

Authors of this article are:

Ungar OJ, Wengier A, Cavel O, Handzel O, Oron Y.

A summary of the article is shown below:

INTRODUCTION: Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) can be the presenting symptom of vestibular schwannoma (VS). Usually, steroidal treatment is given before magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is performed.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a different pattern of steroidal treatment response after SSNHL in patients with and without a VS, in order to determine whether rapid hearing improvement can serve as a predictor of the presence of VS.METHODS: Charts of patients with SSNHLs were reviewed. Analysis of the presenting symptoms of patients with an SSNHL with and without a coexisting VS and comparison of the response to steroids of the two groups of patients was performed.RESULTS: A total of 420 patients were treated for SSNHLs during the study period. Treatment consisted of intraoral prednisone 1 mg/kg/day. The male-to-female ratio was 1.00:1.17, and the median age at diagnosis was 38 years (range 18-82); neither parameter correlated with the presence of VS. MRI scans demonstrated a VS in 20 patients (4.76%). Audiometric testing 7 days after steroidal treatment initiation revealed that the pure-tone average of 240 patients (60%) without VS improved, and that of the 16 (80%) patients with VS improved by the same audiometric criteria (p = 0.0007).CONCLUSIONS: Improvement of hearing within 1 week after steroidal treatment initiation in patients with SSNHLs may suggest the presence of a VS.© 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

[link-preview url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31851989 forceshot=true]

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Acoustic neuroma; Clinical otology; Hearing loss.

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