Clinical features and treatment of sudden hearing loss in patients accompanied with vertigo

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) patients with vertigo. Methods Clinical data including gender, age, course of disease, vertigo-duration, audiological examination, vestibular function examination and imaging examination were reviewed and analyzed in 60 SSHL patients (62 ears) with vertigo admitted to our hospital from October 2013 to October 2015. Results The average age of 60 patients was 40.5 years, ranging from 15 to 65 years old. There were 32 male patients (53.3%) and 28 female patients (46.7%). Most of them were affected monaurally with 35 patients in the left ear and 23 in the right ear, only 2 patients were affected bilaterally. Thirty-nine ears presented profound hearing loss, accounting for 62.9%. Besides, about 30 ears (48.4%) presented flat audiograms or total deafness, and 18 ears (29.0%) presented downslope audiograms. The total effective rate of these patients treated by conventional therapy were 46.8%, of them, patients with vertigo lasting less than 1 day presented better hearing recovery. There was no significant difference in hearing recovery between patients with vestibular dysfunction or not. Conclusion SSHL patients with vertigo is common seen in clinical setting with severe hearing loss and flat audiograms or total deafness in most of them. The vestibule function can be normal or abnormal, which is not correlated with hearing recovery. This study shows that the prognosis of SSHL patients with vertigo is associated with vertigo duration.