<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is a common otologic emergency which occurs due to various etiologies affecting the inner ear. Majority of treatment protocols are focussed on glucocorticoids either systemically or through intratympanic route due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> This was a pre and post observational clinical study conducted in patients visiting Rajarajeswari medical college between December 2015 to December 2016 with a history of sudden hearing loss (30 patients). 6 of these patients presented with bilateral hearing loss, and we considered each ear as a separate case, giving us a total of 36 cases. A diagnosis of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss was made based on the patient’s history and audiological evaluation. All the patients were treated with 3 doses of Intratympanic injections of Dexamethasone (4 mg/ml), on alternate days. Pure tone audiometry (PTA) and brain stem evoked response audiometry (BERA) was done pre-treatment, at 1 and 6 months after treatment. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Mean age of our patients was 44.8. 80% of our patients were male. The average PTA gain, 1 month after treatment was 27.917 and 6 months after treatment was 29.639 with a p value of <0.001, which correlated with BERA. At the end of 6 months after treatment, 15 cases had complete recovery (41.7%), 9 cases showed slight recovery (25%), 6 cases had marked recovery and 6 cases (16.7%) had no recovery.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Intratympanic dexamethasone injections can be used as the first line of treatment with minimal side effects. </p>
<p><strong>Background:</strong> The most common symptom of hypothyroidism regarding ear, nose and throat is hearing insufficiency accompanied with cochleovestibular symptoms such as tinnitus, dizziness.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> This was a hospital based observational clinical study conducted in Rajarajeswari medical college between December 2016 to June 2018. Patients with hypothyroidism attending department of ENT-HNS that satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Patients were subjected to pure tone audiometry, thyroid function test after detailed history and physical examination. PTA was recorded and average of 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz were taken as the pure tone average.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Results:</strong> 150 patients were included in the study. Mean age of patients with hearing loss was 37.2 years. 84.3% were females. 41 patients presented to us with unilateral hearing loss and 10 patients had bilateral hearing loss. 43 (84.3%) patients had mild degree of hearing loss, 8 (15.7%) had moderate hearing loss. Patients with hearing loss had altered TSH levels. Significant correlation (p<0.001) was found between hearing loss and duration of hypothyroidism, mean TSH levels.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It was found that hypothyroidism affects the hearing producing hearing impairment, ranging from mild to moderate in severity and had significant correlation between duration of hypothyroidism and mean TSH levels with the severity of hearing loss.<strong></strong></p>
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