1990 Volume 49 Issue Suppl-6 Pages 19-24
A case of fluctuating hearing loss related to contralateral delayed endolymphatic hydrops (DEH) was first described Schuknecht in 1978. Our patient was a 63-year-old male with diabetes mellitus who developed fluctuating hearing loss and was found to have contralateral DEH. He had had severe hearing loss in the left ear following otitis media when he was six years old. Since the age of 53, he had occasionally noticed fluctuating hearing loss in the right ear along with episodic vertigo of Meniere's type.
After admission to our hospital, the audiograms of his right ear revealed periodically-fluctuating hearing loss without vertigo. His hearing in the right ear fluctuated diurnally ; his hearing depression was severe in the morning, improved at noon and became severe again in the evening. Because he had diabetes mellitus, his blood glucose levels were serially determined. It was interesting that the fluctuations of his blood glucose levels preceded those of his hearing in the right ear by approximately three hours.
