1996 Volume 39 Issue 1 Pages 84-89
Nature of tinnitus was investigated in 97 unilateral sudden deafness patients who received treatments within 2 weeks after the onset. Tinnitus was evaluated every 2 days using the subjective tinnitus score, pitch match test and loudness balance test in order to investigate the relationship between the tinnitus change and hearing recovery.
The results obtained were as follows;
1) There was no statistical difference in the incidence of tinnitus at the first tinnitus test between each group which was classified regarding to the hearing recovery using the criteria proposed by the Ministry of Japan Health and Welfare. On the other hand, the higher the incidence of patients whose tinnitus disappeared within 2 weeks after treatment was, the higher was the hearing recovery rate.
2) Subjective score of tinnitus gradually decreased with hearing recovery, especially in the patients with good prognosis of hearing. From this result, the subjective score of tinnitus might be a good indicator for the recovery of cochlear function.
3) Although the subjective score of tinnitus decreased in patients with good prognosis in hearing, the tinnitus loudness measured with sensation level increased in some patients. This discrepancy might be caused by the recruitment phenomenon in the early stage of sudden deafness.
4) From the analysis of onomatopoetic expressions and simulated tones in audiomentry, the noisy onomatopoeia or tinnitus simulated by noise in audiometry tended to change to the pure-tonal onomatopoeia or tinnitus simulated by pure-tone in patients with good prognosis. Thus, the change in nature of tinnitus also seemed to be correlated with the recovery of cochlear dysfunction.
5) Further study will be needed to clarify the relationship between the changes in nature of tinnitus and the cochlear function in sudden deafness patients.
