Although the causative factors of tinnitus are on he increase, but the etiology of tinnitus has not yet to be confirmed and there has been no satisfactory management even at the present. The authors analysed 135 patients suffering from tinnitus
who
had
visited the OPD of our ENT dept. from Sep. 1991 till Dec. 1993 through questionnaire, history taking and physical examination.
@ES The results were as follows:
@EN 1) Most frequent descriptive symptoms of tinnitus were buzz, ringing, whistling etc.
2) Sixty five cases suffered from insomnia and ninety cases felt some hearing loss.
3) One hundred twenty two patients felt the worsening state of tinnitus; of which 66 cases experienced it in fatigue state, 16 cases in psychologically tensed state, and 11 cases in relaxed state.
Seventy nine cases had experienced some improvement of tinnitus; among them, 28 cases felt improvement during watching the TV or listening to the radio, and 12 each cases felt traffic noise and medication resulted in improvement.
@ES Among the One hundred thirty five cases, sixty two cases (74 ears) were given audiometric tests for tinnitus and, the results were as follows.
@EN 1) Most frequent pitch was 8kHz in 37 ears; 4kHz in 14 ears, narrow-band noise in 9 ears, and 250Hz in 8 ears in the order of frequency.
2) The intensity of tinnitus was mostly less than 5dB SL and most of the masking level was less than 15dB SL.
3) The suspected causes of tinnitus are high frequency hearing loss in 18 ears, idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss in 12 ears, noise induced hearing loss in 12 ears, COM in 7 ears, head trauma in 5 ears, sudden deafness in 5 ears, presbycusis
in
5
ears, ototoxicity in 3 ears, and subjective idiopathic tinnitus in 3 ears.
But because a significant discrepancy in the pitch and loudness exists between the results of the audiometric tests for tinnitus and symptoms the patients actually felt, we need to develop an improved audiometric tests for tinnitus. Also since
almost
all tinnitus patients show, in audiometric tests, a sensorineural hearing loss, especially in high frequency, a further study about high frequency audiometry will be required for those tinnitus patients with normal hearing. (Korean J Otolaryngol
38:8,
1995)
|