Serological and clinical study of herpes simplex virus infection in patients with sudden deafness.

A serosurvey for antibodies against type 1 and type 2 herpes simplex virus (HSV) was performed in consecutive sera collected from 61 patients with sudden deafness. A positive test for neutralizing antibody to type 1 HSV was found in 80% of patients and 77% of controls, a non-significant value. Almost all the patients possessing neutralizing antibody had complement-fixing antibody too, which some controls would have lost in the course of time. The kinetic survey of the antibody titers during the clinical course demonstrated constant levels of these antibodies. It is suggested that there may be some relationship of HSV to sudden deafness and that reactivation of a latent infection may play an important role in the etiology of this disease. We found some relationship between the serological data and the clinical findings with respect to hearing recovery.