The hearing recovery in 32 patients with sudden deafness of 80 dB or more at the first visit to our department, was investigated from two standpoints of view: the presence or absence of dizziness and/or vertigo, and the presence or absence of nystagmus. The hearing recovery was evaluated by the average hearing levels at low frequencies (0.125-0.5 kHz), middle frequencies (0.5-2.0 kHz), high frequencies (2.0-8.0 kHz) and five frequencies (0.25-4.0 kHz).
In the cases with dizziness and/or vertigo, the hearing recovery was poor at all frequency areas. And the tendency that the higher the frequencies, the poorer the prognosis of hearing loss was observed.
In the two groups with and without nystagmus on ENG examination, there were no significant differences in the hearing recovery. The various time of ENG test after the onset was considered as one of the cause of this result.
