Inner ear deafness in Wegener's granulomatosis

Abstract

Autoimmune deafness represents a heterogeneous group of disorders in which there is though to be inner ear and/or middle ear damage mediated by various immunological abnormalities. We describe a patient with Wegener's granulomatosis in whom there was evidence of significant inner ear damage caused by vasculitis, which was completely reversed by cyclophosphamide and prednisolone. We propose that Wegener's granulomatosis is a cause of autoimmune deafness.