Abstract
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is thought to be a vascular disease. Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is an also common ophthalmic vascular disease. Thus, we investigated the potential relationship between these using a retrospective nationwide cohort dataset. We compared 49,584 subjects in the SSNHL and the comparison (non-SSNHL) groups using patients randomly selected via propensity-score matching. We calculated the incidence, survival rate, and hazards ratio (HR) using log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards regression models. This study examined a total of 375,490.4 person-years in the SSNHL group and 373,698.2 person-years in the comparison group. We found that 673 patients in the SSNHL group (1.8 cases per 1000 person-years) and 592 in the comparison group (1.6 cases per 1000 person-years) developed RVO during the 8-year follow-up period. The adjusted HR of RVO was 1.13 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–1.26). The adjusted HR of developing RVO in SSNHL was the greatest in elderly patients (adjusted HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01–1.46) and male patients (adjusted HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.03–1.34). Our findings suggest that clinicians should remain vigilant of the possibility of RVO development in SSNHL patients, specifically elderly male patients.
Highlights
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is characterized by abrupt unilateral loss of hearing, sometimes accompanied by tinnitus or vertigo [1]
In the present study, we aimed to investigate the possible relationship between SSNHL and Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and potential underlying factors, using a nationwide representative cohort dataset based on the Korea National Health Insurance Service (KNHIS-NSC)
This study revealed an increased incidence of RVO in SSNHL patients compared to matched subjects
Summary
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is characterized by abrupt unilateral loss of hearing, sometimes accompanied by tinnitus or vertigo [1]. It is characterized by acute dysfunction of the inner ear and affects men and women almost with peak age-related incidence occurring between 50 and 60 years [2,3,4]. For most patients, their cases are regarded as idiopathic SSNHL because the etiology cannot be determined. There have been few reports to date on the association between SSNHL and other vascular diseases
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