To the Editor.—The article by Haug et al in the Archives (102:5-8, 1976) relating a 70% improvement in idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss with stellate ganglion blocks was a unique report. Some of their conclusions from the data analysis presented may or may not be valid, depending on
further comparisons (which may have been completed but were not presented). Consider the following points:
The patients treated by stellate ganglion blocks had an average age of 43 years and those who received other treatments averaged 55 years. The authors suggested the former as a more successful treatment (70% of the patients improved) than the latter treatments (20% improved). An agerelated prognosis might not justify their conclusion. Byl,' for example, recently reported such a relationship with poorer prognosis related to advancing age. Duvall2 also accepts this prognosis.
The authors concluded from data presented in Fig 3 that early treatment yields