PRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA

Vol. 100  No. 6 June  2007

The Effect of Steroids and PGE1 in the Treatment 
of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Tomoo Watanabe, Tsukasa Ito, Yasuhiro Abe and Masaru Aoyagi
(Yamagata University School of Medicine)

Masashi Yokota
(Yokota ENT clinic)

     To investigate the effect of steroids and PGE1 in the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss, we examined 145 patients who were treated between 1993 and 2000. Forty-one patients were treated with high doses of steroids (group A), fifty-six patients were treated with high doses of steroids and PGE1 (group B), and forty-eight patients were treated with conventional doses of steroids and PGE1 (group C). Using follow-up audiograms obtained one month after the initial treatment, recovery rates were compared among these three groups. The overall recovery rate of group B (72％) was higher than those of groups A (44％, p＜0.05) and C (61％). The recovery rate of group B was especially greater in the 50 and older age group, in patients who started the treatment within 7 days from the onset of hearing loss, and in patients without vertigo. The recovery rate of group C was significantly higher in patients less than 50 years old when the treatment was started within 7 days from the onset of hearing loss. These results suggest that both high doses of steroids and PGE1 may play important roles in therapy for sudden sensorineural hearing loss in patients aged 50 and older. High doses of steroids may not have beneficial effects on sudden sensorineural hearing loss in younger patients.


Key words : PGE1, sudden sensorineural hearing loss, high doses steroid therapy, conventional doses of steroids

第100巻6号　目次　  Vol.100 No.6 contents