Sudden Hearing Loss - Causes and Reasons

Sudden hearing loss occurs when a person experiences a reduction in hearing that is greater than 30 dB and such a reduction occurs in around three continuous frequencies in a period of 72 hours or even less. The measure of sound is a decibel and frequency can also be used to measure this sound.

There have been cases of people reporting sudden hearing loss on a morning and the onset of the same was over a period of a few hours or days. Some other people notice this problem only when the deafened ear is in use such as while making a call. And some other people notice a noise like a "pop" just before experiencing this problem. There may also be a ringing or dizziness associated with this problem. The severity of this hearing loss varies from person to person and normally such a problem can be observed in only one ear. There have been a few cases of people experiencing hearing loss in both the ears. This problem has been reported in around 20 cases in every 100,000 people every year and males are more likely to experience this problem as compared to women. This problem accounts for around 1% of all possible sensorineural hearing loss cases. People in the age range of 46 years to 49 years have greater incidence of experiencing this problem.

Causes of Sudden Hearing Loss

There are number of causes of hearing loss and these include problems of circulation within the ear, infections of the ear and other inner ear issues. Some of these sudden hearing loss causes include:

• Head Injury or other such trauma
• Ototoxic drugs (drugs that harm the ear)
• Cogan's syndrome and other immunologic diseases
• Relation to disorders such as Ménière's disease
• Snake bites and other toxic causes
• Infectious diseases
• Circulatory problems
• Neurologic causes such as multiple sclerosis.
• Abnormal tissue growth

The diagnosis for this problem begins with evaluation and physical examination along with an analysis or study of history of the patient. However the basic problem is diagnosed by a documentation of the decline in hearing experienced by the individual. So an audiogram is ordinarily utilized to document the decline in hearing. Blood studies are also used so as to determine systemic causes to this hearing loss such as Lyme disease, syphilis and metabolic problems. An MRI exam is also conducted to rule out the possibility of acoustic neuroma since this is often reported in 15% of the cases experiencing sudden hearing loss.

Since the definite cause to this hearing loss problem cannot always be pin pointed the treatment for this issue often includes the use of systemic steroids, vasodilators, antiviral medication and carbon therapy. Oral corticosteroid therapy is also one of the few treatment options used in this problem. Quite often the problem of sudden hearing loss may be caused by the herpes family of viruses and therefore antivirals are also prescribed to deal with this issue.

Often some patients display complete recovery from this problem without any medical intervention and this happen s often within the first three days of development of this problem. Such a recovery is called spontaneous recovery. Some other patients recover slowly within a period of a week or two. However in 15 percent of individuals experiencing sudden hearing loss the problem of hearing loss gets worse over a period of time.