According to a study, It is shown that the most common treatment for sudden hearing loss, especially when the reason is not known, is steroids. Steroids can treat many disorders and usually work by reducing inflammation, decreasing swelling, and helping the body fight illness.
Previously the steroids were taken orally in the form of a pill. Within the last 15 years, treatment through the steroids became quite popular. This treatment was as effective as the steroids are taken orally.
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Sudden hearing loss(SHL) is a striking hearing loss which occurs over a short period of time, generally less than 72 hours. People who experience Sudden Hearing Loss are often treated with systemic steroids, which are taken orally. Treatment must carry out immediately within 2 to 4 weeks to avoid hearing impairment permanently.
Sudden Hearing Loss
- It occurs when your hearing ability starts fading very quickly, typically only in one ear.
- The most common age group that gets affected by it is between 30 to 60.
- It occurs normally less than 72 hours.
- It occurs over a short period and it’s a dramatic hearing loss.
- About every third patients who regain some hearing on their own. And, if treatment is not done for the rest of the patients then they may suffer permanent hearing impairment.
Sudden Hearing loss Treatment With Steroid injection
- The normal way for the treatment of sudden deafness, with the help of steroid. It is a course of oral steroids. But this type of treatment has lot’s of side effect like thinning of the bones, increased chance of infection. And sometimes even more critical.
- But now some doctors have started treating their patients by injecting steroids. Doctors directly inject steroids into their ear through the eardrum into the middle ear.
- The heavier dose of steroid injection could deliver to the middle part of the ear. Also, we can say that in the inner ear (cochlea).
- The theoretical advantage of steroid treatment is that it increases the drug concentration at the target area.
Research on Steroid treatment
A trial was carried out by and the study tested the treatments as they are usually given in the clinic. For oral steroid therapy, patients received 60 milligrams of prednisone for 14 days, followed by a tapering-off period of 5 days. The other group was given 40 milligrams of methylprednisolone injected directly through the eardrum 4 times over the course of 2 weeks. The study followed the recovery of these patients for 6 months, measuring the success of the treatments based on hearing tests at the first and second weeks, and months 2 and 6
The result shows that under both treatments, patients recovered their hearing to about the same level at 2 and 6 months.
Effects of Steroids on Sudden Hearing Loss
- The oral steroid has a variety of side effects like – weight gain, increase in blood sugar, insomnia sleep disruption, or more serious, like high blood pressure. Although the cost of this treatment is low as compared to the steroid injection.
- The steroid injection avoids these side effects, but they are expensive and potentially painful comparing to an oral steroid.
Advantages of steroid injection in the treatment of Hearing loss
- Injected steroids are beneficial for the people who, for medical reasons, can’t take the oral steroids.
- The effect of steroid injection is less in contrast to oral treatment.
Consideration
The sudden hearing loss occurs while waking up in the morning. Also, this problem may develop over hours or in days. You may hear a buzz in the ear prior to the hearing loss.
In case of difficulty in hearing, always consult a health specialist and have a hearing test. And get your hearing tested with the help of experts. Depending on your hearing test results, your audiologist will suggest you the hearing aid or cochlear implant depending on the type, the degree of your deafness.
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