Abstract
Current evidence on efficacy of hearing aids (HAs) on tinnitus perception and annoyance is considered insufficient due to the heterogeneity of tinnitus characteristics and of methods used in the relevant clinical studies. This is a scoping review focused on the methodological aspects of clinical studies evaluating the value of HA fitting as part of tinnitus management over the past 10 years. Thirty-four studies were included in the review, showing important heterogeneity in almost all aspects of inclusion criteria, comparators, outcome measures, follow-up time and HA fitting procedures. Although all studies show that HA fitting has a positive impact on tinnitus perception in patients with hearing loss, the methodological heterogeneity does not allow robust conclusions. Future studies taking into account the different nature and goals of each tinnitus therapeutic modality and adapting their methods, endpoints and timelines according to them could lay the groundwork for obtaining high-quality evidence on whether and how HA fitting shall be implemented in tinnitus management strategies.
Highlights
Tinnitus is traditionally defined as the perception of a sound in the absence of external stimuli; this definition has recently been updated in order to include patient’s reaction and related annoyance as a determining factor [1]
Review questions were set as following: What are the methodological aspects of stu-dies evaluating the effect of hearing aids (HAs) fitting on tinnitus perception? Is there an effect of the various HA fitting devices and methods on the perception of tinnitus characteristics in adults with hearing loss? the question was formulated according to the PICO template as following: People: adults with tinnitus and hearing thresholds requiring amplification or not
Inadequate selection of primary and secondary endpoints for effect size assessment Inadequate study design. This scoping review aimed to summarize current evidence on efficacy of HA fitting on tinnitus characteristics and patients’ annoyance, along with the methodologies the relevant studies have used
Summary
Tinnitus is traditionally defined as the perception of a sound in the absence of external stimuli; this definition has recently been updated in order to include patient’s reaction and related annoyance as a determining factor [1]. Of patients experiencing tinnitus suffer from various degrees of hearing loss as well [3]. Degree of hearing loss is not established as a prognostic factor for tinnitus existence and annoyance [4,5]. Approximately 10% of individuals with tinnitus have normal thresholds in Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) [6]. This fact has triggered a wide interest in the literature with regards to cochlear synaptopathy which corresponds to a possible pathophysiological feature causing loss of the low spontaneous rate (low-SR)
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