Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Seasonal Outcomes 2012-2023

A retrospective cohort study analyzed 596 patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) from a tertiary referral center between 2012 and 2023. It investigated seasonal effects on disease incidence and hearing recovery outcomes, categorizing patients by spring, summer, autumn, or winter onset. The study found no significant seasonal differences in incidence or post-treatment improvements in pure-tone average (PTA) and word recognition score (WRS).

Use Cases

• Analyze seasonal onset categories (spring, summer, autumn, winter) against pure-tone average (PTA) improvements to test for prognostic patterns.
• Correlate patient age (mean 51.5 years, range 18-88) and comorbidities with word recognition score (WRS) recovery across seasonal groups.
• Model the relationship between standardized treatment protocols and speech recognition threshold (SRT) outcomes, controlling for season of onset.
• Conduct a meta-analysis comparing this cohort's seasonal incidence findings with the 14 relevant studies identified in the literature review.

Strengths

• Contains data from 596 patients, a substantial single-center cohort for this condition.
• Covers a 12-year time range from 2012 to 2023, providing longitudinal clinical data.
• Includes multiple audiometric outcome measures: pure-tone average (PTA), speech recognition threshold (SRT), and word recognition score (WRS).
• Contextualizes findings with a review of 14 relevant prior studies on seasonal patterns in ISSNHL.

Limitations

• The dataset is small in file size (29.3 KB), indicating it is a summary or analysis document, not the underlying raw patient-level data.
• As a single-center study from a tertiary referral center, findings may not generalize to other populations or care settings.
• Data is presented in a DOCX file format, which is not ideal for direct computational analysis and may require extraction.

Provenance

Source

Jameel Ghantous via figshare.

Collection Method

Retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed at a tertiary referral center.

Time Range

2012 to 2023.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026, indicating recent analysis.

Geography

Single tertiary referral center; specific location unknown.