[32 cases of sudden deafness treated with sequential external counterpulsation in addition to combined traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine therapy].

The present study includes 32 cases of sudden deafness treated with Sequential External Counterpulsation in addition to combined TCM-WM therapy, 30 cases treated with combined TCM-WM, and 30 cases treated with WM alone. The clinical findings of these 3 groups were quite similar, hence they were comparable. The mean duration of treatment, percentage of effectiveness and percentage of recurrence within 3 years were 13 days, 75% and 16.6% respectively in the first group; 19 days, 56.6% and 29.4% in the second group; and 21 days, 53.2% and 37.5% in the third group. The first group showed shorter duration of treatment higher effective rate and lower recurrence rate; and all their differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The data revealed that, the treatment of sudden deafness with Sequential External Counterpulsation in addition to combined TCM-WM has great advantage over treatment with combined TCM-WM or WM alone.