Therapeutic efficacy of methylprednisolone sodium succinate via diverse administration routes for mid- to high-frequency sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Table 1 Comparison of general data

Group	n	Males/females	Age (yr)	Duration (d)	Body mass index (kg/m²)	Diseased ears (left/right)
A	41	23/18	46.67 ± 4.28	4.17 ± 0.42	23.11 ± 1.38	25/16
B	35	19/16	46.54 ± 4.05	4.24 ± 0.46	23.14 ± 1.45	22/13
C	33	17/16	46.75 ± 4.51	4.29 ± 0.49	23.19 ± 1.33	19/14
χ2/t value	-	0.155	0.020	0.650	0.030	0.203
P value	-	0.925	0.979	0.523	0.970	0.903

Table 2 Pre- and post-treatment pure-tone audiometric thresholds amongst the three groups (mean ± SD, dBHL)

Group	n	Pretreatment	Post-treatment
A	41	52.89 ± 6.27	21.23 ± 3.34b,c
B	35	52.75 ± 6.10	28.52 ± 3.36a
C	33	53.29 ± 6.03	30.23 ± 4.21a
F	-	0.070	65.850
P value	-	0.932	< 0.001

^aP < 0.05, when compared with Group A.

^bP < 0.05, when compared with Group B.

^cP < 0.05, when compared with Group C.

Table 3 Comparison of speech recognition rates amongst the three groups (mean ± SD, %)

Group	n	Pretreatment	Post-treatment
A	41	37.89 ± 4.27	92.23 ± 5.34b,c
B	35	36.75 ± 4.10	81.52 ± 8.36a
C	33	37.29 ± 4.03	82.23 ± 8.21a
F	-	0.720	25.750
P value	-	0.490	< 0.001

^aP < 0.05, when compared with Group A.

^bP < 0.05, when compared with Group B.

^cP < 0.05, when compared with Group C.

Table 4 Therapeutic efficacy amongst the three groups [n (%)]

Group	n	Marked effectiveness	Effectiveness	Ineffectiveness	Total effective rate
A	41	28	12	1	40 (97.56)b,c
B	35	11	16	8	27 (77.14)a
C	33	11	15	7	26 (78.79)a
χ2	-	-	-	-	7.898
P value	-	-	-	-	0.019

^aP < 0.05, when compared with Group A.

^bP < 0.05, when compared with Group B.

^cP < 0.05, when compared with Group C.

Table 5 Occurrence of adverse reactions amongst the three groups [n (%)]

Group	n	Dizziness	Nausea/vomiting	Rash	Abdominal pain/diarrhoea	Hypertension	Tinnitus	Fever	Occurrence rate
A	41	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	2 (4.88)b
B	35	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	9 (2.57)a,c
C	33	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1 (3.03)b
χ2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11.443
P value	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.003

^aP < 0.05, when compared with Group A.

^bP < 0.05, when compared with Group B.

^cP < 0.05, when compared with Group C.

Table 6 Recurrence rates amongst the three groups [n (%)]

Group	n	Recurrence	Recurrence rate
Group A	41	1	1 (2.44)b,c
Group B	35	7	7 (20.00)a
Group C	33	7	7 (21.21)a
χ2	-	-	7.120
P value	-	-	0.028

^aP < 0.05, when compared with Group A.

^bP < 0.05, when compared with Group B.

^cP < 0.05, when compared with Group C.