Neurotological findings in patients with acute mumps deafness.

We report the neurotological findings in 4 cases of acute stage hearing loss due to mumps. In 2 of the cases, the less severe hearing loss which occurred in the opposite ear was shown to have improved after therapy. If patients with mumps suffer from a mild hearing loss which recovers quickly, the temporary auditory problem might go undiagnosed; thus the incidence of mumps deafness might well be higher than that reported in the literature. Two of our patients complained of dizziness. In the caloric test, a reduced response of the ear with poorer hearing was found in 3 cases, and a normal caloric response was revealed in the fourth. In the galvanic body sway test (GBST), 3 cases showed a normal response bilaterally and one case presented a normal response bilaterally in the first test, no response in the right side in the second test, and recovery of response in the third test. These findings suggest that an inner ear disorder might occur in combination with a retrolabyrinthine disorder in mumps deafness, with the former lasting longer and the latter improving earlier.