Otoacoustic Emissions in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Changes of Measures with Treatment

Introduction:to identify changes in oaes parameters m treatment course of idiopathic suddensensorineural hearing loss (issnhl).materials and methods:in aprospective studyfromaugust 2005 to january 2009, 26 patients with issnhl underwentconventional audio metry/tympa nometry and two types of oaes (teoaes and dpoaes)befure and after the completion of standard drug therapy. the changes in pre- and posttreatmentparameters were compared with each other and with normal-contralateral ears .results:in teoaes, the mean overall correlation (reproducibility) and the mean overall strength ininvolved ears were 1o.96±23.36 and 0.99±3.45 db, respectively, before the treatment, whichreached 22.88±36.55 and 1.85±5.3, respectively, after the treatment (p>0.05). significantdifference between correlation score (average of correlations at 3-4 involved frequencies)before and after treatment was found: 6.52 ±l8.19 vs. 21.67±37.8 (p<0.034). the differencebetween pre- and post-treatmentoverall correlation and correlation score in the ''responsegroup were significant (p<0.031). in dpoaes ofthe involved ears, the mean dpl level andthe dpl signal-to-noiseratio changes were not significant with the treatment (p>0.05).conclusion:evoked oaes, especially teoaes, are objective , rapid, and sensitive tools in the treatmentcourse ofissnhl.keywords:idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, otoacoustic emissions, response, treatment