Prognostic Value of Early Treatment Response in Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the value of early treatment response in predicting the prognosis of patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) who received hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment. Methods: A total of 226 patients were available for evaluation and met the inclusion criteria. The patients were separated into 3 groups according to the degree of hearing loss: mild to moderate hearing loss <60 dB, severe hearing loss between 61 dB and 80 dB, and profound hearing loss ≥81 dB. An improvement of ≥10 dB in the pure tone audiogram (PTA) performed after the first 5 sessions compared to the pre-treatment audiogram was considered an early treatment response positive (ETR-P). No improvement or an improvement of <10 dB was considered an early treatment response negative (ETR-N). Results: After the first week of HBO treatment, a total of 119 patients (52.6%) showed ETR-N and 107 patients showed (47.3%) ETR-P. A significant association was found between the degree of hearing loss and ETR-P and ETR-N (Χ2= 7.24, P=.02). Patients in the ETR-N group received significantly more HBO sessions than those in the ETR-P group (17.6 ± 3.4 vs. 13.3 ± 4.1, P=0.02). The pure tone average after treatment of the ETR-N patients (60.3) was higher than that of the ETR-P patients (45.2). There was a significant difference between pure tone average after treatment and ETR-P and ETR-N (U=4110, z=−4.59, P=.000). Conclusion: Patients who did not achieve sufficient treatment success in the first week of HBO therapy did not achieve good final hearing results. Cite this article as: Sevil E, Cebi G. Prognostic Value of Early Treatment Response in Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen. B-ENT 2024;20(3):166-172.