Effect of Combining Sound Therapy with Pharmacotherapy on the Recovery of Hearing Abilities in the Case of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Prospective Study

Introduction This study investigated the effect of sound therapy combined with drug therapy (SDT) on gap detection threshold and speech recognition scores in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). Methods Patients with SSNHL were grouped randomly into SDT and drug therapy (DT) groups. All patients received standard drug treatment and patients in the SDT group additionally received sound stimulation for the affected ears for 6 days. Pure tone audiogram, speech recognition scores at normal and time-compressed rates under quiet and noisy conditions, and the gap detection threshold of the SDT and DT groups before treatment and on day 6 and 30 after treatment were compared. Results There were 20 patients in the SDT group and 24 in the DT group. The pure tone thresholds of affected ears were significantly lower in the SDT group on day 6 after treatment than those in the DT group at 125 and 250 Hz. Significantly lower gap detection thresholds and higher speech recognition scores under noisy conditions were observed at the normal and time-compressed rates in the SDT group than those in the DT group on day 6 and 30 after treatment. Significant correlations were observed between the gap thresholds and speech recognition scores in a noisy environment at normal and time-compressed rates on day 6 and 30. Conclusions SDT may improve the recovery of hearing abilities, such as the gap in noise thresholds and speech recognition in noise, in the case of SSNHL. Trial Registration Number ChiCTR-IOR-17012262.