Combined Treatment of Intratympanic and Systemic Corticosteroids in Patients with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Introduction: Sudden sensor neural hearing loss is an emergency of low incidence. Its treatment also presents controversial points and has been widely studied; the most recent evidence shows superiority in treatment with systemic and Intratympanic corticosteroids. Objectives: To expose the experience of the Otolaryngology Service of Unicamp Hospital in cases of sudden sensorineural hearing loss and evaluate the therapeutic response of patients undergoing treatment with intratympanic corticosteroids and / or systemic. Methods: A retrospective, descriptive study that evaluated all patients with sudden deafness treated at the clinic in a tertiary care hospital in the period from 2013 to 2015. Epidemiological, clinical and pre and post therapy audiometric were analyzed. Results: The medical records of 11 patients were evaluated, most were idiopathic (n=8). 54% of patients were female and 46% male, aged between 16-54 years, mean 39 years. Of the 11 cases submitted to the application of intratympanic corticosteroids, 1 had improved pure tonal average (PTA) and SRT, 2 patients had improvement of the PTA alone and 2 only of the SRT. The remaining patients had no change in audiometric parameters and 3 showed progression of hearing loss. Discussion: Several studies have demonstrated the benefit of corticosteroid therapy in the recovery of hearing loss in patients with sudden deafness, but adding intratympanic therapy for systemic therapy still has no proven benefits in the recovery of hearing. Conclusion: There was improvement of the hearing in 45% of patients with sudden deafness treated with combination steroids, improvement of 20 dB PTA and 20% in SRT.