Hydrogen Therapy Improves Hearing Loss After Cancer Radiation Treatment
- Authors
- Xiaofeng Kong, Tianyu Lu, You-Yong Lu, Zhinan Yin, Kecheng Xu
- Journal
- Frontiers in Medicine
- Year
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.3389/fmed.2022.828370
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Radiation-Induced Hearing Loss
- Body System
- Auditory System
TL;DR
Breathing in hydrogen gas may help improve hearing loss in patients who have survived nasopharyngeal cancer and undergone radiotherapy.
Key Finding
After 4 weeks of hydrogen inhalation therapy, patients with radiation-induced hearing loss showed statistically significant improvements in eustachian tube dysfunction scores and both air and bone conduction hearing thresholds, with continued improvement observed at 12 weeks.
Summary
This study looked at whether breathing hydrogen gas could help 17 patients with hearing loss caused by radiation treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer (a type of throat cancer). After 4 weeks of hydrogen inhalation, patients showed improvements in hearing thresholds (the quietest sounds they could detect) and eustachian tube function (the tube that connects the ear to the throat). These improvements continued over 12 weeks, and no serious side effects were reported.
Practical Takeaway
This small preliminary study suggests hydrogen inhalation may be safe and potentially helpful for hearing loss caused by cancer radiation treatment, but it involved only 17 patients and lacked a control group for comparison. Much larger and more rigorous studies are needed before hydrogen inhalation can be considered an established treatment for radiation-induced hearing loss.
Abstract
ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of hydrogen inhalation in improving hearing loss in patients with long-term survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy.MethodsThe eustachian tube dysfunction score, pure tone air conduction threshold, bone conduction threshold, the score of tympanogram and otoscope were prospectively observed in patients with deafness after radiotherapy only or combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Paired t test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data before and after treatment.ResultsA total of 17 patients were observed. The median time from radiotherapy to now was 228 months, and the median time from the diagnose of deafness to now was 92 months. After 4 weeks of hydrogen inhalation, the score of eustachian tube dysfunction, air conduction and bone conduction hearing thresholds were significantly reduced, P values were 0.0293, 0.0027, 0.0404, respectively. The mean air-bone gap, the score of otoendoscopy and tympanogram were also decreased, but the differences were not significant (P = 0.2079, P = 0.0536, P = 0.1056). Patients with radiotherapy alone and concurrent chemo-radiotherapy had significantly lower air conduction hearing threshold after hydrogen absorption (P = 0.0142, P = 0.0495). The results of air and bone hearing thresholds before, 4 and 12 weeks after hydrogen inhalation showed a descending trend. The air and bone hearing thresholds before hydrogen inhalation were 74.69 ± 27.03 dB and 45.70 ± 21.58 dB, respectively. At the 12th week, the mean values of air and bone hearing thresholds were the lowest, which were 66.88 ± 20.88 dB and 40.94 ± 18.93 dB, respectively, but there was no significant difference in air and bone hearing thresholds among all groups (P = 0.6755, P = 0.7712). After hydrogen inhalation treatment, no adverse reactions such as nosebleed, chest pain, dyspnea, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, earache and allergic reaction were observed.ConclusionThis is the first prospective study on the effect of hydrogen inhalation on hearing improvement in patients with deafness after radiotherapy/chemotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, suggesting that continuous hydrogen inhalation may be an alternative rehabilitation therapy for these patients.