Auto immune ear disorder

What is auto immune ear disorder and what are the chances of hearing returning?? I  have not been diagnosed yet waiting for a test sent away and blood tests.  Will find out next week I have all of the symptoms I read about loss of hearing in one ear and dizzyness not so much dizzyness as unbalanced feeling, followed by loss of hearing in second ear one week later.  I thought the steriods, predisone, was working but hearing test says hearing no better. It has now been 1 month .  MRI showed no stroke or tumor.  I understand this is rare is that true?

[Vivek V Gurudutt, MD]

Autoimmune inner ear disease is a form of progressive hearing dysfunction that can have some imbalance associated with it.  It is a form of dysfunction resulting from the immune system indirectly causing damage to the inner ear.  It is not diagnoses very commonly, however, this could be due to the lack of understanding of this process.  Hearing improvement is possible with treatment, however, the extent and length of treatment necessary is not completely established.  Best wishes.