A Case Report of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL) After Administration of the COVID-19 Vaccine

Abstract

Since the issuance of the emergency use authorization (EUA) of 3 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, there have been over 180 million individuals fully vaccinated in the United States (US). With the increasing administration of COVID-19 vaccinations, there have been over 550,000 adverse events reported in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) with approximately 230,000 experienced after receipt of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine as of September 23rd 2021. Audio-vestibular symptoms (including Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL)) secondary to immunizations has previously been evaluated. However, this report describes the first case of bilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss potentially due to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. We further review the available literature regarding the treatment of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss, and the association of SSNHL with previous immunizations and COVID-19 infection. Lastly, we hypothesize the underlying potential mechanisms between SSNHL and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss after COVID-19 Vaccination: A Review of the Available Evidence through the Prism of Causality Assessment

“…Regardless of the country in which the observational studies have been carried out, all authors emphasized both the low historical incidence of SSNHL and the low incidence of SSNHL after COVID-19 vaccination, as well as the need for relevant clinical data to fully explore a potential link between SSNHL and the COVID-19 vaccines. In addition to national studies conducted in the USA, Finland, Israel, France, and Denmark, we identified several case studies of SSNHL after COVID-19 vaccination [ 42 , 44 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ]. Figure 1 shows the chronology of all relevant publications dealing with SSNHL after COVID-19 vaccination.…”