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Intratympanic Steroid Treatment for Acute Low-Frequency Sensorineural Hearing Loss without Vertigo: Prospective Controlled Study

Objectives: Compare the effectiveness of treatment for acute low frequency sensorineural hearing loss (LFHL) with tinnitus and without vertigo between intratympanic dexamethasone injections (ITDI) and oral diuretics. Methods: A total of 35 tinnitus patients with LFHL that had developed within previous 2 weeks were enrolled and randomly assigned into 2 groups: (1) treated with ITDI 4 times on each of 4 consecutive days (19 patients) and (2) treated with diuretics orally for 2 weeks (16 patients). The group assignments and the process of treatments were double-blinded. After 8 weeks, we analyzed treatment outcomes of LFHL using subjective symptom score and audiometric change. Results: The cure rate of ITDI group (42.1%) was significantly higher than that of diuretics group (25.0%). For subjective symptom score, there were no statistically significant differences of improvement rate in both groups (ITDI 63.2%, diuretics 56.3%). In pure tone audiometry, the improvement rate of ITDI group (73.7%) was significantly higher than that of diuretics group (62.5%). There was a significant correlation between the cure rate and duration of symptoms. Conclusions: ITDI is a more effective treatment modality than oral diuretics for LFHL within 2 weeks of development. Duration of symptom affects the cure rate of acute LFHL with tinnitus and without vertigo.