Treatable sensorineural hearing loss

Sensorineural hearing loss is generally felt to be an untreatable medical condition. However, in some cases, prompt diagnosis and treatment of the underlying condition may reverse the deafness. This article summarizes various treatable forms of sensorineural hearing loss and provides illustrative cases histories of patients who have had sensorineural hearing losses that were improved by medical or surgical intervention. Patients with reversible sensorineural deafness due to inadvertent aminoglycoside over-dosage, congenital cholesteatoma, Meniere's syndrome, blood coagulopathy, and perilymphatic fistula all had improvements in auditory function after medical or surgical intervention. Recent experimental studies on animals may explain the basic mechanisms behind hearing loss and recovery. Aminoglycoside ototoxicity appears to have an initial reversible step, followed by a permanent process. Early endolymphatic hydrops and fistulas may cause mechanical effects in the cochlea which can be corrected. Coagulopathy may cause hypoxia which reverses after anticoagulation. These observations reveal that animal experiments can be useful in explaining human auditory dysfunction of the reversible type.