“…It remains unclear if the onset of post-operative hearing loss is immediate or occurs over hours to days, although Adunka et al [49] documented preserved cochlear microphonics immediately after cochlear implant insertion in a patient who subsequently developed a profound hearing loss in the operated ear, suggesting that ‘factors other than immediate changes induced by implant insertion were likely responsible’. There are several mechanisms by which hearing loss may progress rapidly, including oxidative stress to the hair cells [34,39,50,51,52,53,54,55] (which has been observed at regions distant to the site of physical trauma), inflammation [34,36,56,57,58,59,60,61], loss of the endocochlear potential though disruption of the lateral cochlear wall [55,62,63,64] and potassium toxicity through admixing of the perilymph and endolymph due to disruption of the basilar or Reissner’s membrane [65]. The endocochlear potential can recover following some types of trauma, such as ototoxicity [62,63], as can the putative membranous tears tentatively implicated with endolymphatic hydrops, leading to an improvement in hearing.…”