Duration of Tinnitus After Sudden Hearing Loss?

[brownbear]

I am interested to know from people who developed a sudden sensorineural hearing loss how long their tinnitus was a problem for:

A month?
3 months?
6 months?
Never improved?

 

[Telis]

Never. Three years in and has been progressively worse with added issues over time like ear pain, fullness, hyperacusis, balance issues, headaches.

 

[GregCA]

I have sensorineural hearing loss from otosclerosis. Tinnitus hasn't improved in 6+ months.

 

[Lorac]

My tinnitus continues to be a problem three years after sudden sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear. I am unilaterally deaf but I hear and feel noise in the deaf ear in response to external sounds I hear in my good, right ear. That began happening at onset and has not changed but I don't react emotionally any longer. It took at least a year for me to accept this new normal. My deaf ear always feels hot and uncomfortable but it has improved since onset and I have become better accustomed to living with it. My mood still sinks during spikes when the pain increases.

 

[attheedgeofscience]

I am interested to know from people who developed a sudden sensorineural hearing loss how long their tinnitus was a problem for:

A month?
3 months?
6 months?
Never improved?

Attached is literature on the subject. The overall conclusion based on a summary of 302 patients is that:

• Milder cases of SSHL has a better chance of seeing more pronounced improvements than the more severe cases.
• The outcome of improvement of the first three weeks after onset influences the final outcome.
• Regardless, almost no additional improvement is seen after three months (whatever improvement had been experienced up until then).

Here is one chart from the paper:

In basic terms, it shows that the patients with severe hearing loss (i.e. > 100 dB) experienced only mild gains after three weeks (i.e. blue column which is proportionately larger than for the other categories of patients with hearing loss). Notice also that the 50-60 dB %-area of the 70 dB column is proportionately larger than for the more severe patient groups.

There is no current treatment for sudden hearing loss on the market. Auris Medical has developed a drug candidate (AM-111) which aims to treat the condition - but this only works for the very acute stage i.e. post onset of SSHL of 48-72h or so (and the drug is in any event in clinical trial only at this point).

Stem cell therapy would be the only possible avenue that could offer a chance of recovering some hearing loss at this stage therefore (and with the technology "modern" medicine currently has to offer - which is essentially nothing). I don't believe there is much literature on clinical trials or even case studies specifically in relation to stem cell thearpy and sudden hearing loss, but, there is other hearing related material pertaining to stem cells (e.g. case studies and the trial conducted at the Florida Hospital for Children by Dr. Baumgartner).

Lastly, this forum does have one member (@caffclifton) who went on to do really great despite suffering sudden hearing loss.