All the patients received pure-tone audiometry (PTA) before treatment、following a one-week and two-week treatment. Mean pure-tone audiograms was defined as the average of air-conduction threshold measured at 500,1000,2000,4000HZ and was employed to describe outcomes of patients.

Four types of audiograms were identified according to the initial pattern of hearing loss with PTA: ascending (the average threshold of 0.25 to 0.5 kHz was 20 dB higher than the average threshold of 4 to 8 kHz.), descending (the average threshold of 4 to 8 kHz was 20 dB higher than the average threshold of 0.25 to 0.5 kHz), horizontal (Less than 20dB threshold difference observed across all frequency and the mean hearing threshold of 0.5,1,2 and 4KHZ was no more than 80dB), profound (similar audiogram shapes to the horizontal group, whereas the average threshold of 0.5,1,2 and 4KHZ was no less than 81dB).

As indicated in Chinese clinical practice guidelines of SSNHL [13], patients were stratified into four groups based on their responses to treatment (criteria were shown in Table. I): Nonrecovery (NR), partial improvement (PI), marked improvement (MI) and complete recovery (CR). Patients in the NR group were defined as the treatment non-responders, while patients in the other three groups were defined as the treatment responders.