Corticosteroid responsive hearing loss in giant cell arteritis.

Background. -Temporal arteritis (TA) is a inflammatory panarteritis of the elderly, which may diffuse to all large arteries. Five to 10% of the patien ts present nonclassical signs with respiratory, vascular, cardiologic, neur ologic or hepatic manifestations. We reviewed eighteen cases of TA and deaf ness in the literature and report two new cases. Case reports. -Our two patients developed sudden, bilateral and corticoster oid responsive hearing loss. One patient developed hearing loss before the diagnosis of TA. Conclusion. -The mechanism of deafness is probably explained by vertebrobas ilar or terminal cochleovestibular arteritis. While the diagnosis of TA is usually easy, it may be difficult in other circonstances. Sensorineural hea ring loss may be the first symptom of TA. Prompt recognition and treatment may lead to partial or total improvement of hearing loss in 55% of the case s.