Audiological characteristics and exploratory treatment of a rare condition of acute-otitis-media-associated sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Table 1 Demographics of the enrolled patients (n = 8, mean ± SD)

Case No.	Side of the affected ear		Gender		Age (yr)	Hearing loss		Tinnitus				Curve type
	Left	Right	Male	Female		Yes	No	No	Light	Middle	Severe	A	B	C
1	√			√	37	√		√					√
2		√		√	38	√		√				√
3	√		√		47	√		√					√
4	√			√	63	√		√					√
5	√			√	59	√		√					√
6		√	√		67	√				√			√
7	√			√	34	√				√			√
8	√			√	64	√		√					√
Total	6	2	2	6	51.1 ± 13.60	8	0	6	0	2	0	1	7	0

Table 2 Comparison of bone conduction and air conduction thresholds between the affected and contralateral heathy ears (dB HL, mean ± SD)

Group	No.	0.25 kHz, BC	0.5 kHz, BC	1 kHz, BC	2 kHz, BC	4 kHz, BC
Affected ears	8	9.38 ± 5.60	17.50 ± 9.63	18.75 ± 9.16	33.12 ± 12.51	39.38 ± 17.41
Healthy ears	8	8.13 ± 5.30	13.13 ± 5.30	11.25 ± 6.40	17.50 ± 8.86	22.50 ± 11.34
Z		-0.220	-1.282	-1.973	-2.570	-2.161
P		0.826	0.200	0.048	0.010	0.031
Group	No.	0.25 kHz, AC	0.5 kHz, AC	1 kHz, AC	2 kHz, AC	4 kHz, AC
Affected ears	8	28.13 ± 11.63	31.88 ± 15.34	38.75 ± 18.27	38.75 ± 16.42	56.25 ± 22.16
Healthy ears	8	8.13 ± 5.30	13.13 ± 5.30	11.25 ± 6.40	17.50 ± 8.86	22.50 ± 11.34
Z		-2.965	-2.971	-3.242	-2.797	-2.905
P value		0.003	0.003	0.001	0.005	0.004

AC: Air conduction; BC: Bone conduction.

Table 3 Comparison of average bone conduction thresholds and air-bone gap at low and high frequency

Group	0.25-1 kHz	2-4 kHz	Z	P value
Average BC threshold	15.25 ± 6.52	36.25 ± 6.52	-2.897	0.004
Air-bone gap	16.25 ± 11.64	11.56 ± 6.80	-0.527	0.598

BC: Bone conduction.

Table 4 Comparison of the average hearing threshold at affected frequencies pre- and post-treatment with healthy ears

Group	Mean hearing threshold at affected frequencies (dB HL)	Z	P value
Pre-treatment	37.19 ± 9.49	-2.804	0.005
Healthy ears	19.69 ± 7.95
Post-treatment	21.66 ± 9.14	-0.370	0.712

Table 5 Comparison of the pre-treatment air-bone gap with post-treatment values

Group	Air-bone gap (dB HL)	Z	P value
Pre-treatment	14.38 ± 9.40	-3.165	0.002
Post-treatment	3.25 ± 2.71