Fibrinogen and LDL Apheresis in Treatment of Sudden Hearing Loss: A Randomised Multicentre Trial

The study from 2002 investigated the effectiveness of fibrinogen and LDL apheresis as a treatment for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) in 201 patients. The patients were randomly assigned to receive either a single fibrinogen/LDL apheresis treatment or standard treatment. The results showed that while there was no significant overall improvement in pure-tone thresholds with apheresis, speech perception was significantly improved in the apheresis group after 48 hours and at 6 weeks, particularly in patients with plasma fibrinogen above 295 mg/dL. Additionally, patients with LDL concentrations above 3.49 mmol/L or fibrinogen concentrations above 8.68 μmol/L benefited more from apheresis. The study concluded that fibrinogen/LDL apheresis could be an alternative to standard treatment, especially for patients with high levels of plasma fibrinogen and serum LDL.