Carbogen gas for treatment of sudden deafness.

“Is carbogen gas effective in the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss?” Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, also known as “sudden deafness”, involves an abrupt, usually unilateral, partial or complete loss f hearing. For most patients, there is no factor known to account for the deafness and no consensus about the ost effective treatment. Patients with this condition may recover spontaneously, although this is difficult to predict in individual cases. For a number of years, some staff at Monash Medical Centre treated sudden deafness with carbogen gas (5% carbon dioxide and 95% oxygen), which was thought to improve oxygenation of tissues in the inner ear. The treatment appears safe, although its safety is poorly substantiated in the literature. It involves long inpatient stays, and considerable time, resources and inconvenience. The head of the ENT department requested assessment of the evidence of the clinical effectiveness of carbogen gas for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss.