[Analyses of prognostic factors relevant to acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss]

Objective: To investigate the prognostic factors relevant to acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss (ALHL). Methods: 196 adult ALHL patients, including 82 males and 114 females with mean age of (43.1±14.3)years old were included. All patients received the same therapy and were evaluated the curative effect. To evaluate the impact factors on the prognosis of hearing, inclusive of age, gender, time delay before the first visit, degree of deafness, vestibular function, electrocochleogram, and the serum levels of thyroxines by SPSS 18.0 software. Results: Of those 196 patients with ALHL, 124(63.3%) were recovery, 5(2.6%) were excellent better, 42(21.4%) were better, and 25 (12.8%) were poor, with a total effective rate of 87.2%. Among 15 (12.1%) who recurred the hearing loss, 2 developed into Meniere's disease during the follow-up. The mean age of patients with poor hearing effect was significantly older than that of other patients (P<0.05). No relativity was found between gender and hearing curative effect. There existed a statistical difference in total effective rate among subjects with different histories (P<0.05). In addition, the recovery rate was significantly different between groups, i. e., the course of disease was less than 14 days, between 14 days and 6 months, and between 6 months and 2 years (P<0.05). There was no statistical significance in total effective rate among different degrees of deafness (P>0.05). However, in term of the recovery rate, the difference was statistical significance (P<0.05). The recovery rate in patients with mild hearing loss was higher than that in middle or heavy hearing loss (both P<0.05). Among patients with mild deafness, the recovery rate in patients whose history was less than 3 months was significantly higher than that more than 3 months (P<0.05). For moderate deafness patients, the recovery rate in patients whose history was less than 7 days was significantly higher than that more than 1 month (P<0.05). There were statistical differences in hearing effect of 130 (66.3%) patients with abnormal vestibular function in comparison to that with normal vestibular function (χ²=15.1, P<0.05). There were 17(8.7%) patients with abnormal electrocochleogram combined with abnormal vestibular function, and the hearing effects were all poor. There were 45 (23.0%) patients with abnormal thyroxine levels in serum, which was significant higher than that in health adults of 5.9%(χ²=7.26, P<0.01). There was no significant difference in hearing prognosis between patients with abnormal and normal thyroxine levels (χ²=2.51, P>0.05). Conclusions: With respect to ALHL, the hearing effect is associated significantly with the history. The severity of hearing loss is negative prognostic factor for hearing recovery. Age, vestibular function, and electrocochleogram might predict hearing recovery. Gender and thyroxine levels couldn't predict the hearing prognosis, although there is a high incidence rate in patients with ALHL.