Sudden hearing loss due to meningeal carcinomatosis from rectal carcinoma

We present a case of meningeal carcinomatosis with bilateral hearing loss secondary to a rectal adenocarcinoma. A 60-year-old woman developed progressive loss of hearing in the left ear 19 months after an abdominoperineal resection for an adenocarcinoma of the rectum. Three months after the onset of left hearing loss, she visited our hospital. Pure tone audiometry revealed profound sensorineural hearing loss in the left ear and mild sensorineural hearing loss in the right ear. Gadolinium-enhanced MRI revealed tumor in the left internal auditory canal and cerebellopontine angle and enhancement in the right internal auditory canal. Six days after the first examination, pure tone audiometry revealed profound loss of hearing in the right ear. DPOAE of the right ear were still detected 6 days after the first examination, but were clearly decreased 9 days after it, and reached noise level 10 days after it. Gadolinium-enhanced MRI revealed rapid growth of the tumor of the right internal auditory canal and cerebellopontine angle. We clearly demonstrate here the rapid course of hearing loss using pure tone audiometry, MRI, and DPOAE.