Objective: To compare the effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) and intratympanic (IT) steroid injection on hearing after the failure of primary treatment in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL).
Study design: A prospective randomized trial.
Setting: Tertiary referral center.
Patients: Fifty patients with failure of primary therapy for ISSHL.
Intervention(s): After primary treatment with systemic steroids and failure of therapy, defined as less than 10-dB hearing gain, 50 patients were enrolled in the study and received either hyperbaric oxygen or intratympanic steroid treatment. The patients were not matched and not similar.
Main outcome measure(s): Hearing gain at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz after treatment.
Results: There were significant differences between hearing thresholds at all frequencies before and after the HBO treatment. Similarly, there were significant differences between hearing thresholds at most frequencies (except 2 kHz) before and after the treatment in the IT group. The subgroups of patients with pure tone average less than 81 dB and were younger than 60 years had better response to HBO treatment than those with profound deafness and in the elderly.
Conclusion: HBO and IT steroid therapy could be successfully used as salvage therapies in patients with sudden deafness. Further study is needed to demonstrate superiority of one of the treatments.