Page 13 - Portuguese Journal - SPORL - Vol 61. Nº1

Figure 8
THI score before and after treatment with HOT. THI, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory; HOT, Hyperbaric
oxygen therapy.

>90 dB demonstrated a mean improvement 11.2-17 days 14,16 ). The time interval between the
of approximately 24 dB, which corresponds onset of symptoms and the start of HOT was
to a slight improvement according to Siegel’s the most important determining factor for
criteria but in quantitative terms, corresponds auditory acuity improvement, which is in line
to a better recovery than that in patients with previous reports .
9,17
with a lower initial PTA. The patients with a The main limitation of this study was that it
more severe hearing loss had a worse initial did not include a control group, which would
prognosis and for this reason, tended to be allow the establishment of a more robust
referred earlier for HOT (see Table 5), which causal relationship between the improvement
may translate into a selection bias (they may in tinnitus and treatment. Further studies are
have recovered better because they were therefore necessary.
referred earlier).
The incidence of bilateral SSNHL in the present Conclusion
study was 8.8%, which is approximately HOT appears to improve tinnitus and
two to four times higher than that reported therefore has an impact on the quality of life
in previous studies (2%-5%) . This may be of these patients, even when the auditory
2
because these patients were specifically gain is not significant. In addition, it leads to
referred to our center after the failure of an improvement in auditory acuity in patients
corticosteroid therapy and that bilateral with SSNHL refractory to corticosteroid
SSNHL is a factor for worse prognosis for therapy, with the results being more significant
spontaneous recovery or improvement with in cases where the interval between the onset
the use of corticosteroids . Thus, this increase of symptoms and initiation of treatment is
2
is more likely due to a selection bias than to shorter.
an increased incidence of bilateral SSNHL in
the Portuguese population. The interval of Conflicts of Interest
time between the onset of symptoms and the The authors declare that there is no conflict
start of HOT was seven to 103 days (mean of of interests regarding the publication of this
34.9 days), which is markedly longer than that paper.
in other published studies (mean interval of

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