Vol.99 No.7 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 99 No. 7 July 2006
Bilateral Low-Frequency Hearing Loss Following
Spinal Anesthesia: A Case Report
Seiji Bruce Shibata, Kohei Kawamoto and Hiromichi Kuriyama
(Osaka-Kita-Teishin Hospital)
Toshio Yamashita
(Kansai Medical University)
Spinal anesthesia is a very common procedure that is performed on a daily basis in surgical clinical practice. Well known complications include headache, nausea and vertigo. Hearing loss is also a known yet uncommon complication that is usually transient and seldom presents any problems.
We report a case of bilateral low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss following spinal anesthesia. A 57-year-old-man with a right indirect inguinal hernia underwent inguinal herinoplasty under spinal anesthesia. The following day he complained of post-spinal headache and bilateral tinnitus. On the second post operative day, he reported a feeling of impaired hearing in both ears and was referred to our clinic. We treated the patient with infusions consisting of low-molecular dextran and prednisolone from the day of admission. Four days after therapy hearing loss declined and eight days later the patient showed full auditory recovery in the low-frequency area. This low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss is thought to be caused by endolymphatic hydrops due to the loss of cerebrospinal fluid during the spinal anesthesia procedure. Suggested therapies are bed rest, infusions with low-molecular weight dextran, steroids, vitamin B12 and epidural blood patch.
Key words : sensorineural hearing loss, spinal anesthesia, therapy