A Case of Aggravation of Hearing Loss during Steroid and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Sudden Deafness in a Patient with Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Various conditions have been proposed to cause sudden deafness, one of them being cochlear circulatory disturbance. In diabetics, sudden deafness is often thought to be caused by vascular disorders. In this report, the authors describe a case of a 70-year-old male who presented with left-sided tinnitus of sudden onset with hearing loss for middle to high tones. He was already receiving treatment for cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, and angina pectoris. He was started on treatment with a steroid and hyperbaric oxygen for his otologic symptoms. However, the hearing loss aggravated, resulting in complete deafness from day 5 of treatment. The authors thought that this was caused by the vasoconstrictive effect of the steroid and highly concentrated oxygen.