Abstract
In recent years, several studies have been reported on the relationship between oxidative stress and various disorders including some inner ear disorders such as noise-induced hearing loss, drug-induced ototoxicity and age-related hearing loss.
In this study, we investigated oxidative stress in 39 patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) using Free Radical Analytical System 4 (FRAS4). We compared the oxidative stress levels at before treatment to the levels at one and four weeks after treatment.
The oxidative stress level with SSNHL exhibited higher values than the upper limit of the normal value. Furthermore after treatment, oxidative stress levels decreased in most of the patients. Next, we evaluated the relationship between oxidative stress levels and hearing recovery grades. In the patient group with complete and marked recovery, the oxidative stress levels before treatment were higher than the levels in the patients group with slight recovery and no recovery. No statistical significance was observed in the oxidative stress levels evaluated at after treatment between those two groups.
Our findings suggest that SSHNL is related to oxidative stress at the onset period, and the oxidative stress levels before treatment can predict the hearing prognosis in the SSHNL patients.
