Direct injection of steroids into the middle ear for the treatment of sudden deafness was shown to be no more or less effective than oral steroids in restoring hearing levels in a large comparison study of patients. The study results appear in the May 25, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The multicenter clinical trial was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health. It is the largest treatment trial ever conducted to study the outcomes, over time, of patients with this condition.