Clinical features of rapidly progressive bilateral sensorineural hearing loss

Abstract

Conclusion: Rapidly progressive bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) often develops as a symptom of intracranial diseases or systemic vasculitis. For early diagnosis and treatment of these potentially fatal diseases, a history of hearing deterioration within 2 months and associated symptoms may be important. Objectives: To reveal clinical features and causative diseases for rapidly progressive bilateral SNHL. Methods: The inclusion criterion was patients with bilateral progressive SNHL, who had experienced difficulty in daily conversation within 4 days to 1 year after the onset of hearing loss awareness. This study was a retrospective evaluation of 12 patients with rapidly progressive bilateral SNHL who visited our hospital between 2007 and 2011. Results: The causative disease for hearing loss was identified in 11 of 12 patients; intracranial lesions including nonbacterial meningitis, meningeal metastasis of lymphoma, and superficial siderosis in 4 patients, systemic vasculitis in 2, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder in 1, and an isolated inner ear disorder in 4. Relatively rapid hearing deterioration within 2 months showed a significant association in six patients with an intracranial lesion or systemic vasculitis. Moreover, all these six patients complained of dizziness and/or non-cochleovestibular symptoms such as fever, headache, and/or altered mental state in addition to hearing loss.

Keywords::

• Auditory perception
• intracranial disease
• systemic vasculitis
• magnetic resonance imaging
• hearing threshold

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr Michi Kawamoto and Dr Nobuo Kohara in our institute for advice about diagnosis and treatment of patients. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (22591894) and a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (22791642) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.