[Sudden deafness as a consequence of rupture of a basilar artery aneurysm (author's transl)].

A sixty-eight year old female patient died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage three days after experiencing sudden hearing loss in her right ear. Autopsy showed that the cause of death was a large aneurism of the basilar artery. Temporal bone sections uncovered a massive infiltrate of erythrocytes about the nerves in the internal auditory canal. The blood cells had extended along the nerve bundles to enter Rosenthal's canal and the other fluid channels of the modiolus, and could be found within all perilymphatic spaces. The presence of hemosiderin within the inner ear correlates clinically with the onset of sudden deafness three days prior to demise, and is substantial evidence for the loss of hearing due to rupture of the basilar aneurism.