DG>      I have been unimpressed at the clinical level of our
 DG>    understanding of the causes of nerve related hearing loss, a

Your hearing loss sounds similar to one I suffered fif{*filter*} years ago -
I was taking a skindiving class taught by a qualified scuba instructor,
and on the final day of the course, he ended the class with a game of
"British Bulldog" (or underwater tag).  I suppose I swam the width of the
pool half a dozen times, keeping close to the bottom, which was 12 feet at
its deepest.  When I climbed out of the water, I had trouble keeping my
balance and everything sounded tiny and far away in my left ear.  The
next day, the gross symptoms were gone, but I went to the University's
medical centre (I was a student then), dsescribed the situation, and was
told there was absolutely no way permanent hearing loss could happen in 12
feet of water, even if I HAD had a slight head cold. It took quite a bit
of arm twisting to get a referral to an ear, nose, and throat speciallist.
The testing confirmed that I had massive hearing loss in my left ear,
fortunately beginning just at the top end of the normal conversational
frequencies (about 2Khz), where my hearing threshhold plummeted from
5 decibels to 60 decibels. I've had my hearing tested roughly every five
years since, and the loss appears to be permanent.  I generally notice it
only when I fail to hear my wris{*filter*}ch alarm because my good ear is
covered or turned away.  The scuba instructor maintained to the end that
permanent hearing loss in 12 feet of water simply couldn't happen.
The only "explanation" I can recall receiving from the specialists is that
pressure in the inner ear damaged the cilia, and that the higher
frequencies alone were affected because the cilia that transmit them are
more delicate.  Sounds a bit Mickey Mouse, but it's all I've got to offer.
I'd gladly trade it in for a more substantial theory.

--  
Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!134!66!Achim.Lohse