Tinnitus treatment by transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TNS)

Twenty-six patients were treated with transcutaneous nervous stimulation (TNS) for tinnitus. Except for 3 normal hearing patients, all had cochlear hearing losses. Tinnitus disappeared in none, but diminished in 7 cases against 3 in 24 nontreated controls. In the controls there were no reliefs in low-frequency tinnitus cases. One of these 7, who reported benefit initially, used the TNS system for several months. It seems that TNS is not as good as expected, but probably in cases where the tinnitus frequency is low and it disappears with TNS totally, the patients may use it.