Inner Ear Pathology of Sudden Deafness: Histopathology of Acquired Deafness in the Adult Coincident With Viral Infection

EACH YEAR an enormous amount of information has been contributed to the literature regarding viral disease. The cause of the "common cold" now could be one of several score of viruses, from several morphologically different groups.¹Since many of these same viruses which usually have been associated with benign disease can at times be extremely virulent, through central nervous system infection²,³it is not surprising that when viremia does occur the inner ear can be involved in a pathologic process. In spite of this, our knowledge of the histopathology of viral labyrinthitis in the adult is extremely limited. The purpose of this paper is to present two cases of sensorineural deafness, one of which began in association with an upper respiratory infection probably of viral origin, the second showed similar course and histopathological findings but lacked a definite history of association with an upper respiratory infection. Report of