This article looked at whether intratympanic steroids (ITS) provide more benefits over systemic steroid therapy (SST) as initial therapy in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL).
This meta-analysis study, based on published RCTs, concluded that ITS treatment exhibited better outcomes in hearing improvement and recovery rate than SST groups. The study showed no difference in outcomes in terms of hearing loss severity between the two groups.
There was a wide variation in terms of dosage and duration of treatments in the studies conducted, making it difficult to interpret the ideal choice of the duration and choice of intratympanic steroid drug to maximise benefits. - SKM & BR