Korean J Audiol.  2014 Sep;18(2):80-84. 10.7874/kja.2014.18.2.80.

A Case of Acute Bilateral Retrocochlear Hearing Loss as an Initial Symptom of Unilateral Thalamic Hemorrhage

• Park MJ
• Yoon SW
• Kim KH
• Kim YJ

• KMID: 1801960
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7874/kja.2014.18.2.80

Abstract

A speech discrimination test is a test using a list of 25 phonetically balanced monosyllables. It is often overlooked but significant enough for pure tone audiometry. Many physicians have performed pure tone audiometry but without a speech discrimination test. A 73-year-old woman visited our clinic complaining of sudden bilateral hearing loss. Pure tone audiometry showed only bilateral high frequency loss. However, speech discrimination had decreased markedly. We decided to follow-up after 1 week of Ginexin-F(R) (ginkgo leaf extract) and Nafril(R) (nafronyl oxalate). She felt a gait disturbance within 2 days. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a left thalamic hemorrhage. After a 1 month hospitalization, the hematoma subsided, and speech discrimination recovered 3 months later. Acute hearing loss due to thalamic hemorrhage that recovered has never been reported. We report the first case of retrocochlear hearing loss that occurred with a thalamic hemorrhage in a patient who recovered.

Keyword

Thalamus; Retrocochlear disease; Hearing loss; Speech discrimination tests

MeSH Terms

Aged
Audiometry
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Gait
Hearing Loss
Hearing Loss, Bilateral
Hematoma
Hemorrhage*
Hospitalization
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Retrocochlear Diseases*
Speech Discrimination Tests
Speech Perception
Thalamus