Study of the Effects of Anakinra in Corticosteroid-resistant Subjects With Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

The purpose of this study is to determine if anakinra (an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist) can improve hearing thresholds in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss that did not respond to oral steroid therapy. The patients to be enrolled will have recently completed a course of oral steroids and demonstrated no change in their audiometric thresholds following corticosteroid therapy. The investigators will be measuring hearing thresholds (Pure tone average and word recognition scores) before and after anakinra and correlating these findings with circulating IL-1 levels in the patient's blood.