[Course and prognosis in sudden deafness].

Follow up audiograms were done at periods up to 15 years after sudden deafness on 69 patients. The average value of the pure tone threshold continued to decrease linearally at about 1.15 dB per year. In a few cases (21%) however, improvement in hearing was observed even up to 12 years after sudden deafness. 28.6% of the patients recovered later without having shown any improvement in hearing during treatment with infusions. On the other hand 8.3% of the patients had a relapse. The immediate improvement in hearing following in patient treatment showed no correlation to the subsequent audiogram. Neither basic diseases, accompanying tinnitus, vestibular involvement or delayed treatment showed any influence on long-term development of hearing. The results of treatment with different medicaments reached a plateau. No significant effect could be determined for long-term treatment with vasodilators. In view of the high rate of spontaneous remissions the success of treatment for sudden deafness must be critically evaluated.