Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) is an acute otologic emergency, and hearing recovery remains highly variable and frequently unsatisfactory. Acorus tatarinowii Schott has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat hearing impairment and related auditory disorders....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No actionable change — this is a published study protocol; clinical results are not yet available and the intervention (herbal ear-canal packing) is not a standard treatment.
Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss has limited proven treatment options, so a rigorous placebo-controlled trial of a novel herbal adjunct adds to the pipeline of evidence, even if results are pending.
- 01Protocol paper for a single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
- 02Tests Acorus tatarinowii essential-oil ear-canal packing as an add-on treatment for sudden unexplained hearing loss.
- 03Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is a medical emergency with few proven therapies beyond steroids.
- 04No results reported yet — this describes the trial design only.
- 05Published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Adjunctive Acorus tatarinowii essential-oil ear-canal packing may improve outcomes in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42877239
- DOI
- 10.3389/fphar.2026.1875920.
- Journal
- Frontiers in Pharmacology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 1b
- Population
- Patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
- Intervention
- Adjunctive Acorus tatarinowii essential-oil ear-canal packing
- Comparator
- Placebo ear-canal packing
Primary outcomes
Hearing recovery; Audiometric thresholds