The place of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and ozone therapy in sudden hearing loss.

INTRODUCTION: It is difficult to evaluate the effect of drugs clinically used for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, mainly because its underlying mechanism remains unknown.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy or ozone therapy in the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, when either therapy was included with steroid treatment.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis examined 106 patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss seen between January 2010 and June 2012. Those with an identified etiology were excluded. The patients were divided into three treatment groups: oral steroid only (n=65), oral steroid+hyperbaric oxygen (n=26), and oral steroid+ozone (n=17). Treatment success was assessed using Siegel criteria and mean gains using pre- and post-treatment audiograms.

RESULTS: The highest response rate to treatment was observed in the oral steroid+ozone therapy group (82.4%), followed by the oral steroid+hyperbaric oxygen (61.5%), and oral steroid groups (50.8%). There were no significant differences in the response to treatment between the oral steroid and oral steroid+hyperbaric oxygen groups (p<0.355). The oral steroid+ozone group showed a significantly higher response rate to treatment than the oral steroid group (p=0.019). There were no significant differences between the oral steroid+hyperbaric oxygen and oral steroid+ozone groups (p=0.146).

CONCLUSION: The efficiency of steroid treatment in patients with severe hearing loss was low. It was statistically ascertained that adding hyperbaric oxygen or ozone therapy to the treatment contributed significantly to treatment success.