Tinnitus is a disorder that causes people to hear sounds that are not actually present. It can manifest as whistling in the ears, but also as buzzing or clicking. There is no reliable curative treatment for tinnitus, but many management options exist. Surgery is one of them. Although it is not considered an effective way to treat most forms of tinnitus, it can significantly reduce symptoms.
Is surgery a treatment option for tinnitus?
Unfortunately, tinnitus remains very difficult to treat. As it is primarily a disorder reported by the patient rather than observed, doctors often struggle to understand it. This also means that surgical intervention only yields good results in certain cases.
Tinnitus is usually a symptom of another disorder or illness. The conditions that accompany its onset are very varied. The context in which tinnitus develops also strongly influences the relevance of surgical options.
To find out if surgery is an option for you, the first thing to do is to have your specific hearing disorder diagnosed by a doctor.
Tinnitus presents in two main forms. Objective tinnitus corresponds to a bothersome noise for the patient that medical staff can observe; subjective tinnitus, on the other hand, cannot be detected by any diagnostic means. These two types can also react differently to surgery.
After diagnosis, your doctor should try to identify the underlying cause of your tinnitus. Once these factors are established, you may find that surgery is a viable option.
Does pulsatile tinnitus require surgery?
A rarer form of objective tinnitus is pulsatile tinnitus. Patients who hear a regular beat, rather than just a random noise, may suffer from this disorder. In this form, the noise also comes from the body itself. This can be very annoying, even unbearable for the patient. On the other hand, a sound that can be traced allows the doctor to trace it back to a precise cause. These causes include abnormalities of the blood vessels.
Thrombectomy can give remarkable results in these cases. During these procedures, the surgeon incises the blood vessel and removes the obstruction causing the problem. If the abnormal vessel was indeed the cause of the bothersome noise, the symptoms should disappear completely shortly after.
There are also less invasive interventions to treat pulsatile tinnitus. Some cases are due to venous sinus stenosis, which affects the veins of the brain. A treatment consisting of placing a stent in the narrowed veins is currently undergoing a promising clinical trial that is worth following.
If successful, this treatment will remove the obstacle to blood circulation in the area and greatly reduce tinnitus. A patient undergoing this procedure can expect a hospital stay of only 1 to 2 days.
Tinnitus caused by tumors and cysts
In some cases, the noise is caused by a cyst or tumor compressing the auditory nerve. When tinnitus appears in these circumstances, there is a cause that can be physically removed. Not surprisingly, these are the situations most favorable to successful surgery.
One of the most frequently performed tinnitus-related operations involves removing an acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma). These are non-cancerous tumors that can develop on the main nerve connecting the brain to the inner ear. Although this is one of the simpler tinnitus-related procedures, it only improves the disorder in 40% of cases.
Another promising intervention for tumor-induced tinnitus is surgical decompression of the cochlear nerve. In this type of operation, a portion of bone or disc material near the nerve root is removed to create space. Although controversial, one study reported a 52% success rate in reducing long-term symptoms for affected cases with this technique.
What should I do if I think I have tinnitus?
The disparity in results and the complexity of treating tinnitus highlight the importance of obtaining first-rate medical opinions. Always consult a trusted doctor before undertaking anything to treat your condition, especially if you are considering invasive surgery. It is always worth seeking a second opinion.
