[A national database could solve the issue of sudden sensorineural hearing loss]

A national database is being organised for the disease Sudden Sensorineural Hearing-loss, SSH (often called "Sudden deafness"). The cause of SSH is unknown. Many theories have given rise to many treatment regimens: the vascular theory, assuming a reduced blood flow to the inner ear, the infection theory, assuming bacteria or virus being the etiological agent, and the auto-immune theory, where also blood vessels may be involved. Still another theory concerns ruptured membranes, either towards the middle ear, leaking perilymph, or intra-cochlear ruptures, resulting in perilymph and endolymph mixing and giving rise to the hearing loss. Many cases recover spontaneously: up to one third completely and another one third significantly improved. The most common therapy today is high-dose corticosteroids. Collecting data on a large number of patients in a database will allow the assessment of different background factors and the possible effects of therapy. We hope to obtain data on 400 patients per year during a 4-year period in this multi-centre project. A controlled study is planned to assess the effect of cortico-steroid treatment.