Effectiveness of Integrative Medical Treatment in Sudden Hearing Loss
Sudden hearing loss is an emergency in otolaryngology that requires diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible. The golden treatment period is two weeks since the onset of the disease. However, modern medicine is still unable to fully understand the causes of the disease and in lack of corresponding effective treatments. Current therapies also have their own limitations and side effects. To find an effective and safe treatment, integrating with modern medicine and providing inpatient and outpatient medical care, is an important issue in clinical care. Traditional Chinese medicine has been clinically utilized for a long time with accumulated empirical experience and evidence for its efficacy. It can be used as an alternative therapeutic option for sudden hearing loss. Being with a long period of clinical experience and evidence-based curative effect, acupuncture could be applied as an adjunctive treatment for the sudden hearing loss. Currently, this patient-centered, pragmatic clinical trial compares the effectiveness of using west medicine、combination of west medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. The aim of this study is to explore acceptable and beneficial strategy to reduce the clinical symptoms, to improve quality of life, and decrease medical expenses.
• Age ≥18 years, both male and female.
• Meeting the diagnostic criteria for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL), defined as hearing loss of \>30 dB affecting at least three consecutive frequencies within 3 days.
• Newly onset of hearing loss within 2 week.
• Fully understanding the purpose and procedures of the study and providing signed informed consent.