Anesth Pain Med.  2016 Oct;11(4):359-361. 10.17085/apm.2016.11.4.359.

Unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss after combined spinal-epidural anesthesia for emergency cesarean section: A case report

• Lee CJ
• Yoo BW
• Kim JS
• Cho SH
• Jeong EK

• KMID: 2358331
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.17085/apm.2016.11.4.359

Abstract

A 30-year-old primigravida with gestational age of 25 weeks and 4 days was admitted for emergency cesarean section. She was diagnosed as pre-eclampsia with fetal distress. We anesthetized the patient through the combined spinal-epidural anesthetic technique, and there was no specific event throughout the surgical procedures and in post anesthetic care unit. Subsequently, she complained of unilateral hearing difficulty in the ward and an otolaryngology consultation was obtained. She was diagnosed with left sudden sensorineural hearing loss in full frequency range after an acoustic examination. She received intravenous and local steroid treatments for 4 weeks. She showed 32 dB on pure tone audiometry after 5 months. However, we could not continue follow-up testing on the patient because she stopped visiting the hospital since the last examination. We reported a case of uncommon unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss after a combined spinal-epidural anesthesia for emergency cesarean section.

Keyword

Cesarean section; Combined spinal-epidural anesthesia; Hearing loss

MeSH Terms

Acoustics
Adult
Anesthesia*
Audiometry
Cesarean Section*
Emergencies*
Female
Fetal Distress
Follow-Up Studies
Gestational Age
Hearing
Hearing Loss
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural*
Humans
Otolaryngology
Pre-Eclampsia
Pregnancy

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