J Korean Pain Soc.  1992 Nov;5(2):234-238.

Stellate Ganglion Block for the Treatment of Sudden Sensoryneural Hearing Impairment

• Choe H
• Choi YS
• Kim DC
• Han YJ
• Lee KN

Abstract

We compared the effectiveness of vasodilator therapy with histamine and stellate gang!ion block (SGB) for the treatment of sudden sensoryneural hearing impairment retrospctively. 24 patients were treated with histamine and nicotinic acid (histamine group), and 30 patients were treated with SGB (SGB group). Corticosteroids and low molecular weight dextran (Rheomacrodex) were given to all patients. The degree of hearing impairment and the evidence of improvement were checked with audiogram. 52.8% (10 out of l9 follow-up ckecked patients) of patients in histamine group and 56.7% (17 out of 30) of patients in SGB group had improved within three weeks of treatment, which means both histamine and SGB are equally effective. As a consequence, we concluded that SGB ia a good substitute for histamine as a vasodilator therapy for sudden sensoryneural hearing impairment with minimal complication, few absolute contraindications, and simple and safe technique.

MeSH Terms

Adrenal Cortex Hormones
Dextrans
Follow-Up Studies
Hearing Loss*
Hearing*
Histamine
Humans
Molecular Weight
Niacin
Stellate Ganglion*
Adrenal Cortex Hormones
Dextrans
Histamine
Niacin