Evaluation of the clinical studies of prevention and treatment of sudden deafness in China

Objective To summarize and evaluate the current situation on sudden deafness in China by retrospective review of the articles appeared in Chinese journals in the past 3 years Methods The terms of sudden deafness and therapy were used to search all of the articles on the therapy of sudden deafness through the Chinese bio medicine literature data base and Chinese journal net from 2000～2002 All of the articles were analyzed according to the standards of evidence based medicine Results One hundred and seventy six articles were collected 126 were on the curative effect of medicine, of which 26(20 6%) based on the diagnosis and therapy standards settled by the otolaryngology branch of Chinese medical association in 1996,89(70 6%) were controlled clinical trials and 36(28 5%) were randomized controlled trials Most of the articles mentioned the 5 items diagnosis based and not detailed weather hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipemia were excluded Conclusions There are many articles on the therapy of sudden deafness However, the inconsistent understanding of the prognosis and evaluation and unstuck trial design limited the therapy, research and the standards of literature on sudden deafness to progress further