Corticosteroids help hearing-loss recovery

30 January 2007

Time and oral corticosteroid therapy can help patients regain full hearing, often within a month of sudden hearing loss, say researchers in Seoul.

A first-of-its-kind study into time-dependent treatments of sudden sensorineural hearing loss is published in the February issue of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is hearing loss of 30 dB or more that develops over a span of several hours to three days. While the spontaneous recovery rate is high - 30 percent to 60 percent of patients may experience recovery within two weeks - little is known about the exact cause.

In the study of 121 patients, 45 percent recovered within three months after 10 days of oral corticosteroid therapy. Of the group who received oral corticosteroid therapy, more than 78 percent fully recovered within one month, according to researchers at Catholic University of Korea's College of Medicine.

Source: United Press International
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