Although the causative factors of tinnitus are in the increase, but the etiology of tinnitus has not yet to be confimed and there has been no satiasfatory management even ar the present. ENT dept, from Sep. 1991 till Dec. 1993 through questionnarie, history taking and physical exmination. The results were as follows : 1) Most frequent descriptive symptoms of tinnitus were buzz, ringing, whistling etc. 2) Sixty five cases suffered from insomnia and ninety cases felt some hearing loss. 3) One hundred twenty two patients felt the worsening state of tinnitus ; of which 66 cases experienced it in fatigue state, 16 cases in psychologically tensed state, and 11 cases in relaxed state. Seventy nine cases had experiencced some improvement of tinnitus : among them, 28 cases felt improvement during watching the TV or listening to the radio, and 12 each cases felt traffic noise and medication resulted in improvement. Among the One hundred thirty five cases, sixty two cases(74 ears) were given audiometric tests for tinnitus and, the results were as follows. 1) Most frequents pitch was 8kHz in 37 ears : 4 kHz un 14 ears, nerrow-band noise in 9 ears, and 250 kHz in 8 ears in the order of frequency. 2) The intensity of tinnitus was mostly less than 5dB SL and most of the masking level was less than 15dB SL. 3) The suspected causes of tinnitus are high frequency hearing loss in 18 ears, idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss in 12 ears, noise induced hearing loss in 12 ears, COM in 7 ears, head trauma in 5 ears, sudden deafness in 5 ears, presbycusis in 5 ears, ototoxicity in 3 ears, and subjective idiopathic tinnitus in 3 ears. But because a significant discrepancy in the pitch and loudness exists between the results of the audiometric tests for tinnitus and symptoms the patients actually felt, we need to developan improved audiometric tests for tinnitus. Also since almost all tinnitus patients show, in audiometric tests, a sensorineural hearing loss, especially in high frequency, a further study about hiigh frequency audiometry will be required for those tinnitus patients with normal hearing.
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