Thirty patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss who presented to the University Hospital between January 1985 to January 1992 are presented. The combined regime of bed rest, intravenous dextran 40, vasodilator and steroid therapy produced good improvement in 63.4% of patients. Unfavourable prognostic factors were found to be, hearing loss of more than two weeks duration, vertigo and bilateral hearing loss.