Neuro-otological findings in tinnitus patients with normal hearing

Abstract

Tinnitus is usually associated with hearing loss, and patients with tinnitus and normal hearing are unusual. Neuro-otological findings have not previously been described in tinnitus patients with normal hearing. To analyse neuro-otological examination results from a group of tinnitus patients with normal hearing. Seventeen normal-hearing tinnitus patients seen over a 10-year period were retrospectively evaluated. Their results were compared with those of a control group of 17 normal subjects without tinnitus. The main neuro-otological finding in the tinnitus patients was caloric test abnormality: a unilateral canal paresis was present in 15 of the 17 patients. Caloric tests were normal in 15 of the 17 control subjects. We may infer from these results that tinnitus could be the only clinical manifestation of a cochlear - and presumably cochleo-vestibular - lesion, and that unilateral canal paresis may be the only abnormal finding on neuro-otological examination.