2.3 Data Extraction
Data extraction and efficacy evaluation criteria: Researches and
statistics were extracted and assessed independently by two researchers
(LUO and CHEN). The two researchers extracted the following data from
each selected study: type of study, number of subjects with or without
vertigo, age distribution, male/female ratio, treatment regimen,
treatment period, definition of the average pure tone hearing threshold,
standards for hearing amelioration, PTA or improvement rate after
treatment, and follow-up time. The criteria for effective treatment were
adopted according to the Siegel criteria: impaired hearing improvement
>15 dB was considered an effective treatment, and impaired
hearing improvement <15 dB was considered an ineffective
treatment. We also compared the hearing recovery rate of patients
suffering from SSHL among those with vertigo and those with SSHL among
those free from vertigo and the rate of hearing recovery between each
subgroup.