THE ROLE OF HYPOTENSION IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF SUDDEN HEARING-LOSS

The generic term 'sudden hearing loss' indicates the lack of knowledge about the etiology and pathogenesis of this phenomenon. In most cases it would seem feasible to consider infections or organic circulatory defects, but there are cases, generally affecting young subjects in wh om the damage is often reversible, in which a functional origin is pos sible. We therefore investigated the possible effect of systemic arter ial pressure in a retrospective study in a group of 36 patients aged n ot more than 40 years, treated for sudden hearing loss, comparing the mean values of their arterial pressure with those of a control group o f 25 subjects, of similar age, admitted for other disorders The signif icantly lower mean values of arterial pressure in the group affected b y sudden hearing loss and the easier reversibility of the damage in th ese patients suggests that, at least in some cases, the cochlear damag e may be caused by a perfusion deficit due to the combined effect of h ypotension and imperfect vasomotor regulation.