Acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss at our hospital

Clinical statistics for an 18-year period

Abstract

Acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss is defined as hearing impairment limited to low tones. However, several studies have suggested that a similar etiology exists among patients in whom the sum of the hearing levels at high-tone frequencies is 65dB or more. Herein, we classified such patients as probable cases and investigated the characteristics of the definite and probable cases that were treated at our hospital. As compared to the probable cases, the definite cases were younger and had a more favorable prognosis. Although the number of semi-definite cases may be expected to increase with the aging of society, a decreasing trend was observed.