RESULTS
This study included 32 patients in total; 18 females and 14 males with a mean age of 61 (range 25-87). Hearing loss was right-sided in 14 patients, left-sided in 17 patients, and bilateral in one patient. No autoimmune aetiology was identified for the patient presenting with bilateral SSNHL.
The incidence of SSNHL in this study for 2019 was 9 per 100,000, in keeping with the reported incidence of 5-27 per 100,000 outlined in the 2012 AAOHNS guideline.2 Figures 2 & 3 reveal mean averaged hearing thresholds (on the affected side) of 74.8dB ± 25.6 on presentation (range of 35dB to 120dB). Following oral steroid therapy, mean averaged thresholds were 68.6dB ± 23 (range of 30dB to 108dB). This resulted in a mean averaged threshold improvement of 6.2dB (range of -13.8dB to 33.8dB) following oral steroid therapy, which was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Mean averaged thresholds post-ITS were 65.7dB ± 25.1 (range of 22dB to 120dB), demonstrating a mean average threshold improvement of 2.9dB (range of -22.5dB to 61.3dB). This mean improvement was not deemed to be statistically significant.
Figure 4 reveals a sub-analysis of hearing thresholds pre- and post-oral steroids and post-ITS, based on initial hearing thresholds at presentation (<70dB and >70dB). These graphs display individual patient trends.
Using the standardised criteria reported by Gurgel et al6, where the hearing thresholds of the unaffected side are used as a comparison for potential recovery, complete recovery was achieved by 3 patients (12%), partial recovery by 3 patients (12%) and no recovery by 19 patients (76%) following ITS. This therefore gave a combined recovery rate for our salvage ITS therapy of 24%. This analysis was undertaken in 25/32 patients in the study, where unaffected hearing thresholds were available.