Acute tinnitus and permanent audiovestibular damage after hepatitis B vaccination

Yeast-derived recombinant DNA hepatitis B vaccine usage has been widely accepted since the early 1990s, especially for high-risk patients. Severe adverse effects have been reported infrequently. Certain neurological complications raise concern for hepatitis B vaccine: central nervous system demyelination, acute myelitis, acute cerebellar ataxia, and various peripheral mononeuropathies. Case reports on tinnitus, hearing loss, and vestibular damage are extremely scarce. The case presented here concerns a professionally active nurse, born in 1953, with a medical history of progressive renal failure and hemodialysis. Eleven hours after a second injection of the hepatitis B vaccine Engerix B, an acute left-sided tinnitus occurred and, a few hours later, severe left hearing loss and intense vertigo. Tinnitus and the sensation of vertigo regressed fairly quickly, but the hearing loss and the vestibular paresis were permanent. Increased interpeak intervals on auditory brain responses and lack of recruitment suggested that the lesion probably is located at the level of cranial nerve VIII. From a medicolegal point of view, this audiovestibular damage had to be considered an accident at work and not as an occupational disease.