The importance of tinnitus as a prognostic sign in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients

In this study the determination of the importance of tinnitus in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients was aimed. Ninety-eight patients who had treatment between January 2011 and April 2013 with diagnosis of idiopathic sudden hearing loss were evaluated retrospectively. These patients were divided into two groups according to the presence of tinnitus symptoms. The patients who had tinnitus symptom constituted the first (n=57) and those without tinnitus constituted the second group (n=41). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of treatment efficiency which was made by calculation of the hearing thresholds in 250-8000 Hz frequencies for the two groups in the pre-treatment and post-treatment (10th day) period (p>0.05). In contrast to many published articles which support tinnitus as a positive prognostic factor, in our study we concluded that tinnitus had no significant effect on prognosis.