Probational treatment of sudden deafness with prostacyclin: a pilot study

Sudden idiopathic hearing loss has occasionally been supposed to be caused by a disturbed microcirculation in the inner ear of unknown origin. Little is known about the regulation of cochlear blood flow and the effectiveness of drugs in cochlear microcirculation. Because animal experiments gave evidence that prostacyclin (PGI2) might be one biochemical substratum of local regulators in the flow of blood in the stria vascularis, 11 patients with sudden idiopathic hearing loss were treated once for 6 h with prostacyclin (10 ng/kg body weight/min) in a first open clinical trial. In most cases prostacyclin increased hearing level (mean value: 7.4 dB/frequency/day) more than a standard therapy with pentoxifylline. The substitution of PGI2 could be another indication of a rheologic disorder--whether per se or within a larger context of inflammation-like interaction--in the inner ear of patients with sudden hearing impairment.