Hearing recovery in sudden sensorineural hearing loss (Kalathottukaren & Ng, 2026)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to hearing recovery in patients treated for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL).Method: This study included 36 participants (23 men, 13 women) diagnosed with unilateral SSNHL. The inclusion criteria required a confirmed diagnosis of unilateral SSNHL using standard pure-tone audiometry. Associated symptoms, such as new-onset dizziness and tinnitus in the affected ear, were recorded at the time of the initial audiometric evaluation. Information regarding treatment approaches and intensity was collected by chart review.Results: Participants were classified into two groups based on posttreatment pure-tone averages (PTAs) and word recognition scores: recovery (n = 15) and nonrecovery (n = 21) groups. A logistic regression analysis identified that dizziness and pretreatment PTAs were the statistically significant factors associated with hearing recovery in this cohort.Conclusions: It was found that the presence of dizziness and pretreatment PTAs were the significant factors associated with hearing recovery. The findings of this study indicate that patients presenting with vestibular symptoms and severe hearing loss should be considered at high risk for poor recovery.Supplemental Material S1. Additional details regarding participant classification into recovery groups based on posttreatment pure-tone averages and word discrimination scores.Kalathottukaren, R. T., & Ng, A. H. C. (2026). Hearing recovery in patients treated for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. American Journal of Audiology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_AJA-25-00152