Korean Journal of Audiology  2014;18(2):80-84

doi:10.7874/kja.2014.18.2.80

A Case of Acute Bilateral Retrocochlear Hearing Loss as an Initial Symptom of Unilateral Thalamic Hemorrhage.

Min Joon PARK 1 ; Sung Won YOON ; Kang Hyeon KIM ; Young Jin KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

Thalamus; Retrocochlear disease; Hearing loss; Speech discrimination tests

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

A speech discrimination test is a test using a list of 25 phonetically balanced monosyllables. It is often overlooked but significant enough for pure tone audiometry. Many physicians have performed pure tone audiometry but without a speech discrimination test. A 73-year-old woman visited our clinic complaining of sudden bilateral hearing loss. Pure tone audiometry showed only bilateral high frequency loss. However, speech discrimination had decreased markedly. We decided to follow-up after 1 week of Ginexin-F(R) (ginkgo leaf extract) and Nafril(R) (nafronyl oxalate). She felt a gait disturbance within 2 days. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a left thalamic hemorrhage. After a 1 month hospitalization, the hematoma subsided, and speech discrimination recovered 3 months later. Acute hearing loss due to thalamic hemorrhage that recovered has never been reported. We report the first case of retrocochlear hearing loss that occurred with a thalamic hemorrhage in a patient who recovered.