Temporary hearing loss induced by combinations of intense sounds and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Intense sounds were delivered to 11 subjects with normal hearing both before and during administration of standard doses of four nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. After four days of aspirin treatment (3.9 g daily), the subjects' resting hearing levels raised by about 10 dB. Administration of intense sounds that had previously been shown to produce about 12 dB of temporary hearing loss added increments of 10 to 15 dB to the aspirin-induced hearing loss. That is, the total temporary hearing loss produced by aspirin plus exposure to intense sound was about 10 to 15 dB greater than that produced by exposure to the intense sound alone. A similar effect was observed for sodium salicylate. After similar administrations of sulindac (400 mg per day) and diflunisal (750 mg per day), there was no corresponding increase in the sound-induced hearing loss. Under certain reasonable assumptions about underlying mechanisms, these findings suggest that persons taking moderate doses of aspirin or sodium salicylate may be at increased risk of noise-induced hearing loss.