• Antonio Pirodda, Gian Gaetano Ferri, Teresa Montana, Raffaella Riggio, Grazia Innocenti, and Gianfranco Di Nino.
• Department of Surgical and Anaesthesiological Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy. antonio.pirodda@unibo.it
• J Laryngol Otol. 2004 Dec 1;118(12):941-5.

ObjectiveWe investigated the possible role of hypotension and related autonomic phenomena in the pathogenic mechanism of sudden sensorineural hearing loss.MethodsForty-nine patients belonging to the ASA I-II classes of anaesthesiological risk and submitted to a non-otological surgical procedure were examined. Each operation was performed under general anaesthesia by controlled hypotension technique. Hearing function of the patients was evaluated before and after surgery by means of a pure tone audiometry recorded by the same clinician with the same instrument.ResultsNo cases of bilateral hearing worsening were recorded after surgery.ConclusionsAn induced and controlled steady hypotension under general anaesthesia did not affect the hearing function of any of the patients. It may be supposed, therefore, that an adverse effect on the cochlear oxygenation is more likely to be caused by the sympathetic changes induced by a consistent decrease of blood pressure rather than to hypotension itself.

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