New therapeutic prospects in acute acoustic trauma

: A total of 50 young soldiers hospitalized for high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus following exposure to gun impulse noise was studied in order to ascertain the effects of two kinds of medical treatment. A first group (18 subjects) was treated for 10 consecutive days with cerebral gangliosides. In a second group (17 subjects) gangliosides were associated with subcutaneous infiltration of bupivacaine chlorhydrate (0.5%). A third group (15 subjects) was taken as control. An improvement in hearing threshold (= greater than 20 dB at 4-8 kHz) and a consistent relief of tinnitus was respectively found in 52% and 66% of the treated subjects, while hearing status and tinnitus persisted unchanged among the control group subjects. The amount of hearing improvement over the control group proved to be statistically significant, although no significant difference was demonstrated between the two kinds of medical treatment. Since therapy was initiated 5 to 21 days after acoustic trauma, these results indicate that a pharmacological treatment may be effective even in cases where diagnosis is forwarded relatively late in respect to the trauma.