Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss in patients undergoing long-term haemodialysis

Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISHL) has been recently recognized and is increasing in frequency in patients undergoing long-term haemodialysis. Although this is one of the annoying complications impairing quality of life in haemodialysis patients, there has been little clinical evidence about ISHL in haemodialysis patients until now. We have examined retrospectively the clinical features of 6 ISHL patients, 3 males and 3 females, with a mean age of 54 years, who underwent regular haemodialysis with a mean haemodialysis duration of 90 months from 1985 to 1989. Although a specific cause for ISHL could not be identified in this study, more precise clinical features of ISHL in patients undergoing haemodialysis have been elucidated. ISHL seemed to develop more frequently in haemodialysis patients and occurred in patients undergoing haemodialysis for a relatively long time, being independent of the high-frequency-deficit type hearing disturbances usually observed in the early course of haemodialysis therapy. Above all, diabetic haemodialysis patients were more susceptible to ISHL, occurring in 4 cases out of 6. Its prognosis was not necessarily bad, showing a recovery rate of 83%, but more effective therapy should be explored for improving the quality of life in haemodialysis patients.