A 37-year-old male visited our clinic complaining of acute onset of right hearing loss and vertigo in the morning after sleeping in the right lateral position with his arm abducted.
Audiological examination revealed sensorineural hearing loss (average pure tone level 70dB), probably of cochlear origin.
Angiography showed stenosis of thoracic outlet portion of the right subclavian artery. Hearing loss and other symptoms disappeared after several days of steroid therapy.
The pathogenesis of hearing loss in this syndrome is discussed briefly from the point of view of the disturbance of the circulation to the inner ear due to subclavian arterial stenosis.