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78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2007, Munich

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Effect of Atorvastatin on progression of sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus in the elderly: results of a prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial

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  • corresponding author Bernhard Olzowy - LMU München, HNO-Klinik, München, Germany
  • Martin Canis - LMU München, HNO-Klinik, München, Germany
  • Martin Hempel - LMU München, HNO-Klinik, München, Germany
  • Markus Suckfüll - LMU München, HNO-Klinik, München, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Munich, 16.-20.05.2007. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2007. Doc07hno007

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2007/07hno007.shtml

Published: August 8, 2007

© 2007 Olzowy et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: Both experimental and clinical evidence suggests that elevated serum cholesterol promotes development of sensorineural hearing loss. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors have proven to be effective against high serum cholesterol. We therefore aimed to test, whether the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor Atorvastatin can slow down the progression of chronic sensorineural hearing loss in the elderly.

Patients: 50 Patients, 60–75-years-old with presbycusis and moderately elevated serum cholesterol.

Intervention(s): In a double-blind design according to GCP patients were randomly assigned to treatment with either atorvastatin (40 mg orally per day) or placebo.

Main Outcome Measures: Pure tone audiometry and tinnitus evaluation at enrolment and after 7 and 13 months.

Results: Development of hearing thresholds after 7 and 13 months showed no significant differences between the groups. Tinnitus score continuously improved in the atorvastatin group (34.8 at 7, 27.6 at 13 months) while it slightly deteriorated in the placebo group (24.8 at 7, 26.8 at 13 months). The effect on tinnitus was a tendency without statistic significance (p=0.0833).

Conlusions: Atorvastatin had no effect on the development of hearing thresholds, but resulted in a trend towards a relief of tinnitus.