CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Laryngorhinootologie 2021; 100(S 02): S196-S197
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1728358
Abstracts
Otology / Neurotology / Audiology

Changes in tinnitus after cochlea implant

S Demers
1   Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Klinik für HNO-Heilkunde, Heidelberg
,
S Hoth
2   Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg
› Author Affiliations
 

Introduction Deafness is one of the greatest risk-factors for the development of tinnitus. Many patients who have undergone cochlear implantation (CI) report of changes to the tinnitus in the course of the postoperative rehabilitation. These changes have been previously examined, however with the focus placed on the tinnitus itself rather its effects. In this study the Tinnitus questionnaire (TF) by Goebel und Hiller was used to evaluate the influence of CI on the burden caused through tinnitus in several areas.

Materials and Methods: The TF is a validated, widely used, german-language questionnaire which through 52 questions determines the personal burden caused by tinnitus. The TF was given to 113 patients from 2012 to 2019 prior to CI as well as at least 6 months postoperatively. A frequency analysis as well as a paired t-test of the score as well as the resulting severity index (SI) was performed.

Results Of the 113 patients, 82 also answered the questionnaire at least 6 months after CI. The analysis showed an improvement in 64.2 %  of patients with a significant average improvement of 4.96 (p=0.011). There was also a significant improvement of the SI of 0.22 (p = 0,05).

Discussion The analysis of the TF showed a slight but significant improvement of the score as well as the SI. However, there were patients for whom the burden through tinnitus worsened. Both potential results should be discussed with patients when considering CI. In summary this analysis confirmed the subjective experiences of our patients as well as previous studies of this topic.

Poster-PDF A-1632.pdf



Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021

© 2021. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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