2016 Volume 59 Issue 6 Pages 653-659
In recent years, attention to sound therapy with hearing aids for the management of tinnitus through television, books and other media has been rapidly increasing. As a result, tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) using hearing aids has become prevalent. In this article, we report the results of comparison of the clinical findings at the initial visit and clinical course between patients who were able to continue TRT using hearing aids (hereinafter “TRT-continued group”) and those who were unable to continue TRT (hereinafter “TRT-discontinued group”).
Of 94 patients (52 males and 42 females) with tinnitus who visited the outpatient clinic for tinnitus and hearing loss of the Department of Otolaryngology, Shin-yurigaoka General Hospital, between April 2012 and March 2014, the data of 24 patients (17 males and 7 females) who were able to continue TRT using hearing aids and 31 patients (15 males and 16 females) who were unable to continue TRT using hearing aids were analyzed.
1. We report the results of comparison of the clinical findings at the initial visit and clinical course between patients who were able to continue TRT using hearing aids and those who were unable to continue TRT.
2. The statistical analysis revealed that the score on the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) at the initial visit was significantly higher in the TRT-discontinued group than in the TRT-continued group, suggesting that TRT is less likely to be effective in patients with high scores on the THI.
3. The results suggest that the patients' interests need to be aligned and that the counseling frequency during TRT needs to be increased by increasing the frequency of medical consultations, which can be done, for example, by shortening the revisit intervals for TRT and extending the observation period.
These findings suggest that for intractable cases, the frequency of medical consultations needs to be increased, for example, by shortening the revisit intervals during TRT and extending the observation period.