Background: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between vestibular and auditory functions in pediatric patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL).

Methods: A total of 30 pediatric patients experiencing unilateral SSHL between 5.9 and 13.0 years of age were enrolled in this study. Pure tone audiometry was evaluated prior to treatment initiation and again after one month of treatment. Prior to treatment initiation, vertigo symptoms were noted; then several vestibular function tests were conducted including caloric testing, ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (o-VEMPs) and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (c-VEMPs). Associations between pre and post-treatment vestibular function and hearing threshold levels were analyzed.

Results: Initial hearing thresholds of children with vertigo were higher than thresholds of children without vertigo (92 dB vs. 79 dB, P = 0.033), while initial hearing thresholds of children with abnormal caloric test findings were higher than thresholds of children with normal caloric test findings (93 dB vs. 67 dB, P = 0.014). Cutoff values of hearing thresholds for those with vertigo symptoms and abnormal vestibular test results were 86.000- and 89.583-dB HL, respectively. Regarding prognosis, children with vertigo exhibited lower recovery rates than children without vertigo (33% vs. 75%, P = 0.025); recovery rates of children with abnormal caloric test results were lower than the overall recovery rate (25% vs. 73%, respectively, P = 0.039).