The efficacy of an additional cycle of oral steroids in partially recovered sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) after initial oral steroid therapy.

Conclusion: There was no beneficial effect of an additional cycle of oral steroid therapy in partially recovered patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss after initial oral steroid therapy.

Objectives: Partial recovery of hearing after one cycle of steroids might be the result of a relatively short duration of medication. We evaluated the efficacy of an additional cycle of steroids in those patients.

Subjects and methods: With strict inclusion criteria, we selected the patients with hearing gain more than 10 dB, but still worse than 30 dB with hearing level, at the end of one cycle of steroid therapy. They were divided into a control group with no further treatment and a study group treated with an additional cycle of steroids. We compared their hearing outcomes, recovery rates and the mean duration of hearing improvement.

Results: We could not find any significant difference in either hearing outcomes, recovery rates or the mean duration of hearing improvement between the one-cycled group and the two-cycled group.