[Inner Ear Hearing Loss Part II: Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Therapeutic Options]

The great majority of hearing disorders generates from pathologies in the inner ear, mainly the outer hair cells, as mentioned in the first part of this review. Very often, however, hearing loss appears suddenly and even without external causes like noise exposure. This sudden hearing loss is mostly unilateral, recovers very often spontaneously and should be treated, if persisting. Only in this acute stage there are therapeutic options available. If the inner ear hearing loss is chronic there is no curative therapy, an effective management of the hearing disorder is only possible through rehabilitation. This is due to the fact, that hair cells of all mammals, incl. humans, have no regenerative capacity and neither pharmaceutic agents nor other means can induce regeneration and recovery of hair cells. Even a gen-therapy is not available yet. In the second part of this review the main focus lies in sudden hearing loss and general therapeutic options for inner ear hearing loss.