Tinnitus before and 6 months after cochlear implantation

Area of Science:

• Otorhinolaryngology
• Audiology
• Neurosurgery

Background:

• Tinnitus is a common symptom often associated with hearing loss.
• Cochlear implantation (CI) is a treatment for severe to profound hearing loss.
• The effect of CI on tinnitus is variable and requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of cochlear implantation (CI) on tinnitus loudness and distress.
• To assess the incidence of new-onset tinnitus following CI surgery.
• To correlate tinnitus outcomes with audiological parameters and speech understanding.

Main Methods:

• Prospective multicenter study involving 174 cochlear implant (CI) candidates.
• Tinnitus loudness and distress assessed preoperatively and 6 months post-CI activation.
• Utilized visual analogue scale for loudness and a standardized questionnaire for distress.
• Compared data with pure tone thresholds and speech reception scores.

Main Results:

• Preoperatively, 71.8% of subjects reported tinnitus.
• Post-CI, 20% reported tinnitus abolition, 51.2% improvement, 21.6% no change, and 7.2% deterioration.
• Five subjects (28.2% of those without pre-CI tinnitus) developed new tinnitus post-CI.
• New-onset tinnitus was associated with poorer postoperative speech understanding.

Conclusions:

• Cochlear implantation (CI) offers significant tinnitus relief for a majority of candidates.
• A small percentage may develop new-onset tinnitus post-CI, potentially affecting speech perception.
• No correlation found between tinnitus improvement and age, tinnitus duration, or hearing threshold changes.