2002 Volume 45 Issue 2 Pages 149-154
The prognosis of acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss (ALHL) is difficult to predict. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used in this study to determine which factors were most strongly related to outcome for patients with ALHL.
The study group was comprised of 61 patients (61 ears). The first analysis was performed on the poor prognosis group (no change and partial recovery groups, 15 ears) and full recovery group (46 ears). The second analysis was performed on the recurrence group (14 ears) and non-recurrence group (32 ears). The following factors were examined as explanatory variables: age, sex, vestibular symptom, number of days before the start of treatment, therapy (corticosteroids, vasodilaters, diuretics, and vitamin B12 and satellite ganglion block), and initial hearing levels at 0.125, 0.25, 0.5 and 1kHz.
Factors determined to be most strongly related to outcome were age, sex, hearing level at 1kHz and use of the diuretics. And the sex was also strongly related to the recurrence of ALHL.
Our results will increase the ability to prognosticate the outcome for ALHL.
