Whirling Vertigo as a Prognostic Factor in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Hong, Byung Soo; Chung, Won Ho; Park, Kye Hoon; Jung, Yong Gi; Hong, Sung Hwa; Choo, Kwang Chul

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Presence of whirling vertigo accompanied by sudden sensorineural hearing loss has been known to give negative effects on the hearing recovery. But the effect of whirling vertigo on the recovery of hearing cannot be simply evaluated because prognosis is related with other several variables, such as severity of hearing loss, onset of treatment and age. This study sets out to investigate the impact of whirling vertigo on the severity and recovery of hearing loss by multivariant analysis to exclude the effects of other variables. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A total of 176 patients who were admitted to Samsung Medical Center from March 1997 to March 2001 were entered into our study. All patients were divided into three groups according to the presence of dizziness: with whirling vertigo (39 ears), with non-whirling dizziness (36 ears), without dizziness (101 ears). To investigate the impact of whirling vertigo on the severity of hearing loss, each group was divided into four groups according to the severity of hearing loss. Each group was analyzed respectively by the presence of whirling vertigo. Secondly, the effect of whirling vertigo on hearing recovery was investigated by multivariant analytic technique to exclude the effect of the other probable prognostic factors. Thirdly, the effect of other variables (severity of hearing loss, onset of treatment, age) on the prognosis was investigated.
RESULTS
The presence of whirling vertigo was not statistically related with the severity of hearing loss (p=0.063). The results of the multivariant analysis showed that the recovery of hearing loss was related with the presence of whirling vertigo (p=0.02), severity of hearing loss (p=0.001), onset of treatment (p=0.034) and age (p=0.034).
CONCLUSION
Hearing loss in the group with whirling vertigo was not more severe than that in the other two groups. According to the multivariant analytic technique, whirling vertigo in sudden sensorineural hearing loss has a negative effect on the prognosis of hearing recovery.