Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2022; 10(15): 4895-4903
Published online May 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.4895
Sudden deafness as a prodrome of cerebellar artery infarction: Three case reports
Bang-Liang Li, Jia-Yuan Xu, Sen Lin
Bang-Liang Li, Jia-Yuan Xu, Sen Lin, Department of Ear, Nose, and Throat, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Lin S designed most of the investigation; Li BL performed most of the investigation and wrote the manuscript; Xu JY and Lin S performed the data analysis and contributed to data interpretation; and All authors read and approved the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from individual participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sen Lin, MD, Professor, Department of Ear, Nose, and Throat, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, No. 108 Wansong Road, Ruian, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang Province, China. lnns@163.com
Received: September 24, 2021
Peer-review started: September 24, 2021
First decision: February 7, 2022
Revised: March 4, 2022
Accepted: April 3, 2022
Article in press: April 3, 2022
Published online: May 26, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

To summarize the clinical characteristics of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) in patients with sudden deafness (SD) as the first symptom, improve the awareness of the disease, and help diagnosis and treatment.

CASE SUMMARY

From 2019 to 2020, three patients with ACI with SD as the first symptom were admitted to our hospital. Pure tone audiometry, head magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), vertebral artery and carotid artery B-ultrasound, head and neck computed tomography angiography, and other examinations were performed. Following the treatment of SD, hearing and dizziness were not significantly improved. Then, the patients developed symptoms of related cranial nerve injury, and brain MRI showed cerebral infarction in the cerebellopontine angle area. All three cases were transferred to the neurology department for relevant conservative treatment.

CONCLUSION

Patients with ACI with SD as the first symptom usually attend the otolaryngology clinic. Here a diagnosis of SD, which is based on an audiological examination, is made and the corresponding treatment is administered. To reduce the misdiagnosis of this disease, close attention should be paid to the changes in the patient's clinical symptoms and related auxiliary examinations should be performed, such as brain MRI and cerebrovascular imaging. Otolaryngologists should pay attention to the type and severity of hearing loss, the accompanying symptoms, age, high-risk factors for cerebral infarction, and related cranial nerve symptoms in patients with SD. If the patient's early brain MRI does not show abnormalities, monitoring remains essential. The head MRI should be analyzed quickly based on the changes in the symptoms of the patient, to make an accurate diagnosis and provide the timely and correct treatment for the patients.

Keywords: Acute cerebral infarction, Anterior inferior cerebellar artery, Sudden deafness, Case report

Core Tip: The cerebral infarction patients with sudden deafness as the first symptom are often easy to miss diagnosis. For this kind of patient, comprehensive combination of patient symptoms, hearing examination, imaging examination, can make the correct diagnosis as soon as possible to give timely treatment.