When a patient presents with sudden onset hearing loss it is important to examine them carefully to differentiate between conductive and sensorineural hearing loss → sudden-onset sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) requires urgent referral to ENT.

Causes

The majority of SSNHL cases are idiopathic.

however it can be attributed to:

• autoimmune conditions (e.g. Behcet's or SLE)
• infectious causes (e.g. bacterial meningitis, mumps, Lyme's disease)
• metabolic causes (e.g. diabetes, hypothyroidism)
• neoplasm.

Ix: An MRI scan is usually performed to exclude a vestibular schwannoma.

Tx: High-dose oral corticosteroids are used by ENT for all cases of SSNHL.