- Idiopathic inflammation, mainly affecting cochlear nerve
- Abrupt onset unilateral hearing loss
- Sense of ear fullness
- Sometimes tinnitus
- Sometimes dizziness
- Decreased ability to hear whispered words, rubbed fingers thru affected ear(s)
- If patient hums, sounds louder in normal ear
- External canal and TM should be normal (assuming no co-existing conductive loss)
- Weber w/512hz tuning fork lateralizes to normal ear; Rinne indicates air conduction better than bone
- Audiometry (urgent in this setting) to confirm and quantify degree of loss