Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Before COVID-19, During COVID-19, and After Inactivated Vaccination: Experience From a Tertiary Referral Center in China.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence rate and audiological characteristics of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) before the COVID-19 pandemic, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and after inactivated vaccination, and to analyze whether the novel coronavirus or inactivated vaccination have an impact on hearing loss.

Materials and methods: The clinical data of all patients who visited the hospital in July 2019 (before pandemic), July 2020 (during pandemic) and July 2021 (after the inactivated vaccination at least the first basic dose of COVID-19 vaccination) were retrospective analyzed. All patients diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss in these three periods were screened, and their incidence rate, hearing characteristics, and prognosis were compared.

Results: Overall, the incidence rates of sudden hearing loss in July 2019, July 2020, and July 2021 were 0.59, 0.60, and 0.52% (25 of 4225, 20 of 3322, 28 of 5432), respectively, without significant difference ( χ2 = 0.372, p = 0.830). A significant difference was noted in the incidence of hypertension ( p = 0.02), whereas no significant difference was noted in age ( p = 0.591, p = 0.66), sex ( p = 0.19, p = 0.08), main symptoms ( p = 0.18, p = 0.15), side ( p = 0.483, p = 0.89), audiogram shape ( p = 0.56, p = 0.989), average hearing threshold of affected frequency ( p = 0.81, p = 0.89), average hearing threshold of normal ear affected frequency ( p = 0.65, p = 0.68), average hearing threshold of affected frequency after treatment ( p = 0.49, p = 0.38), days between symptoms onset and hospital visit ( p = 0.62, p = 0.85), treatment plan ( p = 0.551, p = 0.474), and effectiveness ( p = 0.104, p = 0.050).

Conclusion: Our study failed to find a correlation between the novel coronavirus pandemic and inactivated vaccination and SSHL, and there was no direct evidence supporting that COVID-19 or inactivated vaccination had an impact on the incidence rate and prognosis of SSHL patients.