Sudden hearing loss and stroke

Taiwanese researchers found that sudden hearing loss may foreshadow a stroke by as much a two years:

Five-year follow-up data on 1,423 patients hospitalized for an acute episode of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) showed they were more than one-and-a-half times more likely to suffer a stroke than a control group of 5,692 patients who had been hospitalized for an appendectomy.

Though more research is needed, it’s important that hearing loss patients be assessed carefully for their risk for stroke.