Objective tinnitus is rare and intrigued men because it is audible to others.
Recently we experienced a case of objective tinnitus resulting from the clonic contraction of the muscles of the Eustachian tube and it was accompanied with Meniere´s syndrome.
A 39-year-old housewife visited to Dept. of Internal Medicine, SNUH, on Aug. 1967, with chief complaints of dizziness, nausea, tinnitus and hearing disturbance on right, which was developed about 3 years ago.
The tinnitus was subjective at onset and blowing in its character: and since last year, it was accompanied by tinnitus which was audible to-others and intermittent regular clicking in its character.
She was referred to Dept. of Otolaryngology for otologic examination. Routine otorhinolaryngological examination showed no significant abnormality. Audiologic findings showed moderate degree of sensorineural loss on right, and high tone loss on both, positive recruitment phenomenon on right, and 25 dB pure tone decay at 4, OOOHz on right.
Nasopharyngoscopic examination showed no organic abnormality but regular clonic contraction of the muscles around the nasopharyngeal orifice of the Eustachian tube, which was synchronous with objective tinnitus.
During hospital course, dizziness, nausea and subjective tinnitus were relieved but objective tinnitus continued intermittently.
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