Oral Prednisolone Treatment of Sudden Sensory Neural Hearing Loss: 16 A Three Year Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Sudden Sensory Neural Hearing Loss (SSNHL) is a serious medical condition and requires prompt medical attention. The study was done to estimate the effect of different protocols of oral Prednisolone plus high dose vitamin B-complex and vitamin BI, 132. Be in patients with unilateral SSNHL who have failed to respond to treatment. A retrospective study was done from January 2015 to January 2018 at the outdoor patient department of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital, Dhaka among 75 randomly selected patients with a mean age of 46.32 years (range 25-69 years). with the preselected criteria. Each of the patient received one of the four standard oral Prednisolone dosing protocols along with high dose of vitamin B-complex and BI, 132, Be orally 20mg four times for a total dose of 80mg daily for one week, Group A, n=18; orally 20 mg three times, for a total dose of 60mg daily for one week Group B, n=18; orally 20mg two times for a total dose of 40mg daily for one week Group C, n=18; orally 10mg three times for a total dose of 30mg daily for one week. Group a n=18. All the doses were then tapered for next 5 days. Patient characteristics and pharmacological effects were compared among the 4 groups. The mean age, average duration of symptoms from onset to treatment, and degree of hearing loss were analyzed by means oft-test Treatment effects were analyzed by means of Chi-square test. P<0.05 was considered significant. Improvement of hearing was assessed by pure tone audiogram. The total effective rate was 88.89% 83.33%, 77.78% 66.67% for each treatment protocol, respectively, with no significant statistical difference between them (p00.05). The results suggest that a total dose of 80 mg is the most appropriate protocol. Prednisolone significantly improves the prognosis of SSNHL. Further multicenter studies are needed to determine the more standard treatment protocol.