Correlation analysis on clinical effects of acupuncture for elderly patients with sensorineural deafness and ear distending sensation

Objective： To investigate the relationship between clinical effects of acupuncture for elderly patients with sensorineural deafness and ear distending sensation. Methods： A total of 120 elderly patients with sensorineural deafness were randomly divided into a comprehensive treatment group, an acupuncture group and a Western medicine group, with 40 cases in each group. The acupuncture group received acupuncture treatment, the Western medicine group received oral mecobalamin tablets and the comprehensive treatment group received acupuncture plus acupoint injection and auricular acupoint sticking. The values of pure tone hearing threshold test of the three groups were observed before and after treatment, and the relationship between clinical effects and ear distending sensation was compared. Results： The total effective rate of the comprehensive treatment group was 82.5% versus 67.0% in the acupuncture group and 62.5% in the Western medicine group. The inter-group comparisons showed statistically significant differences in the comprehensive treatment group versus the Western medicine group （P〈0.01） and the acupuncture group （P〈0.05）. In the comprehensive treatment group, there were 23 cases （57.5%） with ear distending sensation, the clinical total effective rate was 86.9%; there were 17 cases （42.5%） without the sensation, the clinical total effective rate was 76.5%. In the acupuncture group, there were 24 cases （60.0%） with ear distending sensation, the clinical total effective rate was 71.0%; there were 16 cases （40.0%） without the sensation, the clinical total effective rate was 63.0%. In the Western medicine group, there were 21 cases （52.5%） with ear distending sensation, the clinical total effective rate was 66.7%; there were 19 cases （47.5%） without the sensation, the clinical total effective rate was 57.9%. The total effective rate of patients with ear distending sensation were higher than the rates of those without ear distending sensation in the three groups, but the differences were insignificant （all P〉0.05）. Conclusion： The comprehensive therapy is one of the effective methods to treat elderly patients with sensorineural deafness. In the three groups of elderly patients with sensorineural deafness, the relief of ear distending sensation and the hearing loss were basically simultaneous, and the hearing recovery in the patients with ear distending sensation may be slightly better than that in those without ear distending sensation. Nevertheless, further research is needed.