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Single-sided deafness after sudden hearıng loss: late effect on cochlear nerve size

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 26 August 2020

Abstract

Purpose

Single-sided deafness (SSD) is a condition where an individual has non-functional hearing in one ear and receives no clinical benefit from amplification in that ear, with the contralateral ear possessing normal audiometric function. Cochlear implant presents a good choice in rehabilitation of SSD. The presence of a deficient cochlear nerve (CN) has been linked to poor performance with cochlear implants. CN can be measured by imaging techniques. The objective of this study was to compare CN diameter in patients who had a history of single-sided deafness because of sudden hearing loss.

Methods

Retrospective study where radiologist was blind designed. 53 SSD patients who had a history of sudden hearing loss and MRI at least 5 years after the sudden hearing loss were included in this retrospective study. High-resolution 3-D constructive interference in steady state (CISS)-sequence magnetic resonance (MRI) images was review by the neurotology-experienced blind radiologist. Vertical, horizontal and area measurements of cochlear nerve between the deaf and the normal ear were made.

Results

There was no statistically significant difference between the normal ear and deaf ear of the subjects in terms of cochlear nerve vertical diameter, horizontal diameter and area. (respectively, p = 0.250; p = 0.183; p = 0.874)

Conclusion

The numbers of remaining cochlear neurons and spiral ganglion cells in the implanted deaf ears are critical and evidence was not found for spiral ganglion cell loss in the sudden hearing loss deaf ear with SSD in MRI. In the light of all these findings, implantation would be a good choice for rehabilitation in postlingual SSD regardless of auditory deprivation duration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey

    Yuce Islamoglu & Gulin Gokcen Kesici

  2. Department of Radiology, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey

    Karabekir Ercan

  3. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Yıldırım Beyazıt Medical School, Ankara, Turkey

    Mehmet Ali Babademez

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  1. Yuce Islamoglu
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  2. Gulin Gokcen Kesici
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  3. Karabekir Ercan
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  4. Mehmet Ali Babademez
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Correspondence to Yuce Islamoglu.

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Conflict of interest

There were no conflict of any kind for any author, all authors have contributed to and approved this manuscript. There is no conflict of interest. Research involve human participants and ethical approval was taken from the ethical committee. No funding has been used for this study. This study has been presented in 41th Turkish National ENT Congress 13–17 November 2019 in Antalya, Turkey.

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Islamoglu, Y., Kesici, G.G., Ercan, K. et al. Single-sided deafness after sudden hearıng loss: late effect on cochlear nerve size. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 277, 2423–2426 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05977-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05977-x

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