Objective Tinnitus of the Vascular Type: A Follow-up Study

Abstract

Twenty-four patients with objective tinnitus of the vascular type were included in a follow-up study at the end of 2-15 years. This form of tinnitus may be divided into 2 groups: (1) Tinnitus caused by anomaly within the arteries of the head or neck, (2) so-called essential objective tinnitus whose cause is presumably to be searched within the venous return from the head. The poorest prognosis was found in the patients of group 1. In cases where the diagnosis, in respect to the accurate location of the disease, was uncertain, exploratory operations proved at best ineffective and in one case entailed severe complications. In the essential type the prognosis was quite favourable, the tinnitus subsiding spontaneously in 7 of the 13 patients within a few weeks up to 3 years. In 3 of the remaining patients the tinnitus was reported to persist after the course of several years, but it was no longer felt to be bothersome. The author advances the hypothesis that the essential type of tinnitus is due to abnormalities of the bulb of the internal jugular vein.