Abstract
Subjects were 310 patients with sudden sensorinural hearing loss treated at our hospital between 1986 and 2002. A statistical analysis of clinical data showed significant prognostic factors to be age, time from onset to the initial visit and start of treatment, severity of initial hearing loss, and the presence or absence of vestibular symptoms. When we looked at the number of days until the average threshold of five frequencies improved more than 10dB, cases improving within 7 days showed significantly better prognosis than those after 8 days. We concluded that the pattern of improvement one week after the beginning of treatment could be used to predict prognosis in patients with sudden sensxorineural hearing loss.
