Steroid Injection Into Ear a Month After Noise Exposure?

I know this question has been asked in older threads - however - mostly it seems it's done right after an acoustic trauma. I did have a noise exposure about a month ago but not really a big deal and did NOT affect my other ear. So I'm assuming it really wouldn't have done anything other than be annoying as both ears exposed.

Anyway ENT offered this option because it works for another patient. He made it sound low risk but when mentioning sedation I knew it must not be fun. Reading online it sounds awful. Is it a hail Mary pass or a lab rat thing. Anyone had it for tinnitus that was not noise induced. I read it is sometimes used for Meniere's so maybe a check for that.

 

I have hearing loss from a virus and received four steroid injections. To me, it was really no big deal. There was no sedation, I am not even sure why sedation would be necessary.

My ear drum was numbed a bit for the first injection, but not for the following injections. The ENT specialist simply used the same injection site. He is a very skilled ear surgeon, so it was an easy procedure for him. If I had any discomfort, it was very mild.

The specialist I saw does steroid injections often and said he has seen about 65-70 percent of patients recover some hearing. After the injections, he advised waiting two months before checking my hearing again. He cited a few studies that indicated hearing improvement after the last injection can take a while.

Unfortunately, my hearing did not improve. However I have a pretty large drop in the high frequencies, and I think recovery is more likely for mild loss.

Despite that, I do not regret doing the steroid injections. Not one bit. I feel that I did what I could to improve my hearing.

 

Hi Light rain,
Steroid injections can help calm down tinnitus but also vertigo ....
Usually repeated 2-3 times over a few weeks.
It can be done while awake inserting a needle into your ear drum with numbing your ear or through grommets ....
It does not reduce hearing or destroy your middle ear like gent injections.
Love glynis

 

Here's an older study, but I got several newer studies.

http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/arti...rapy-to-inner-ear-for-control-of-tinnitus.pdf


http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/borden...px?docid=569300b6-9b36-4352-84b6-ed16c2ca5823

 

How long after the virus if you don't mind me asking. I am just puzzled because if this was caused by vestibular neuritis it would have been in 2010. Unless he thinks this is some sort of reactivation. Even so it was not offered at previous visits. He mentioned sedation which probably just means Valium. My ent is board cert and a surgeon also. Don't know how skilled he is though. Reading some other posts made it sound very painful so perhaps it was just who did the procedure. Thanks.

 

Thanks Glynis for taking time out to respond. At this point I may consider it for the dizziness if it would work for that. As you know it is the icing on the cake some days. I was reading another link posted on here about Menieres. I might not fit it 100% but pretty close.

 

Thanks. You've been really helpful and I appreciate it. I don't have a computer at home or internet so research is kind of hit or miss.

 

It was a month after I lost hearing. I think I had the virus the week leading up to my hearing loss. I did oral steroids for two weeks prior to the injections (prescribed by a different ENT).

Did you have vestibular neuritis in 2010? The virus that caused my hearing loss seemed minor, nothing more than what I thought was a bad cold. My doctors have said viruses are incredibly sneaky in that way.

 

Back in 2010 I had ear pain and T and dizziness developed right away. Ear always looked fine and lackluster gp just said it was a virus and I couldn't get a referral to an ent. So I never had anything checked until this year when things got suddenly worse last fall and dizziness also recurred. So no one knows for sure. That fits VN but a lot of other things too. I do have nerve damage on one side (balance nerve).

 

Just to add, I did read a study that found individuals with tinnitus had their tinnitus decreased after a series of steroid injections.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19160857/

 

Ugh, very sorry to learn your first doctor did not pursue it further then. I feel like so many doctors lack follow through.

Steroid injections might be worth a try. I think the risk is low. I would do them again without hesitation if my ENT thought they would help.

Sorry to ask but I can't remember, have you had an MRI at all. Even since 2010? I was terrified of the noise, but I have had to have a few since March. For the last ones at a hospital, the radiology tech did a good job of inserting ear plugs, putting stick on ear muffs, and then placing huge foam pads around my head. They were pushed up against my jaw, so I think they may have even helped with bone conduction. With all of that ear protection, I could not hear the tech even when he shouted!

 

I've tried three times the past few months and they've all been cancelled on me (2 different places). The one last week they called at 7am as I was about to leave. The excuses have been paperwork, machine down and tech unavailable. So it is rescheduled for next month but I'm not in the mood so I'm thinking about it.

I didn't know much about the ear before and was pretty disgusted with doctors at that point. I was just so relieved the dizziness went away that I put up with the T. I didn't think it would come back like it did. And I did have balance issues but they were written off as CFS stuff. No one ever said it could be related or that permanent damage was done. Now I feel like I really should have pushed harder for an ent.

 

It's so hard to know. Try not to feel bad. If I've learned anything from this, it's to push even if the doctor thinks I'm being silly.

 

@light rain @Tinker Bell

I called the hospital were I once worked today and spoke to the head of radiology. This hospital has 2 pre 2013 GE T 1.5 models. He said the pre 2013 MRI machines have had the hammering sounds lowered, most a couple of years ago. Federal government regulations. The new MRI machines, like the new GE models since 2013 are very quiet. I retired in 2011.

So Eric's experience from the GE T 1.5 pre 2013 re-fitted was 85 decimals with both his muff and ear plugs deduct another 32 decimals. So he was only hearing 53 decimals. When his protection came off for a few seconds, the low frequently at 85 decimals should not have been enough to give him a permanent spike. What do others think?

 

I wonder if being in an enclosed machine affects that too. The one MRI they have has a wider opening and is much shorter (short bore?) but not an open one. Maybe sound can escape better.

 

The retired navy doctor as the author listed in my second link above now practices in Sacramento. Just 20-25 minutes from me. I gave his office a call and was told that he does intratympanic injections all the time, but that you have to have a certain profile, conditions and other factors to be considered. Probably the same as mentioned in his article. They won't accept my insurance, so I would need an insurance referral from my doctor.

 

Light rain: I had to edit my post. I made a mistake "re-fitted to 85 decimals.

I know that the open ones have less sound, but was told the images may not be as good. The hospital had an out patient radiology center a 1000 feet up the street, with real trees, a garden and water falls in the waiting area, but that's all I've seen in that building.

 

Please don't mention about referrals! The ent can not make some of the referrals he wants because of insurance (like neuro, clinic for the H). That gets kicked back to my PCP. I called today to make sure they contact me as soon as they get the paperwork so they can refer me to the clinic at least. The office doesn't know what to do, ect. So hopefully ent is writing explicit instructions for them or else I need to find a new PCP on top of all this. It would be silly if it wasn't so frustrating.

 

My PCP is a true professional. I can see him within an hour. He gets referrals for me all the time with doctors in other medical groups. The problem is that these other doctors want me to take drugs that spike my tinnitus. My PCP is always sending me messages asking how I'm doing using the patient portal site. He calls me once every two weeks. My dentist doesn't like to drill a few seconds on and then a few seconds off. My PCP called him and told him that he better do what I ask him.

 

That is good to know! I had a couple MRIs with a GE Silent Scan machine. I thought it was pretty quiet. The next were with a Siemens 3T machine, and I actually thought it was the same volume as the GE machine. Or maybe their ear protection was just better?

I have to do a CT scan next. I'm nervous about the radiation, but I'm relieved it should at least be quiet.

 

A Dr like that seems pretty rare. Part of the problem is the ent is from one health system and the PCP is in the other. They have some sort of patient portal but don't use it. My PCP is nice but the office is very low tech.