Auditory Nerve Section

If that worked for me I'd be pretty much cured with 1/10 tinnitus!

Thanks stubby - worth a look at the neck aspect.

 

The topic about cutting the auditory nerve for unilateral tinnitus appears from time and time, and I have not found threads with background references. I found this paper with a summary of findings (the paper is old), and is not as negative as it could be expected given the main working hypothesis that tinnitus is in the brain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6915835/

1. Ciba Found Symp. 1981;85:204-16.

Tinnitus: surgical treatment.

House JW, Brackmann DE.

Surgical treatment of tinnitus includes destructive procedures, neurectomies,
stapedectomies and tympanosympathectomies. Translabyrinthine procedures for the
removal of acoustic neuromas and sectioning of the eighth nerve to eliminate
vertigo are analogous to cutting the eighth nerve as a surgical intervention for
tinnitus. After surgical removal of acoustic tumours with excision of the
auditory nerve in 414 patients, only 40% reported improvement in their tinnitus.
Of 68 patients undergoing translabyrinthine eighth nerve section, 60 (80%) had
tinnitus preoperatively. Improvement occurred in 45%, while 55% reported the
condition to be the same or worse. In patients undergoing middle cranial fossa
section of the vestibular nerve for vertigo or dizziness, most reported the
tinnitus to be the same but a significant number felt that it was worse.
Stapedectomy improves hearing in most patients but improves the symptom of
tinnitus in only about half of the patients. Cochlear implant patients report an
improvement in their tinnitus with use of the stimulator and implant. Implant
procedures might therefore be used in patients who suffer from severe tinnitus.
Surgical management of tinnitus, although successful in some cases, does not
provide a valid and reliable mode of treatment for subjective tinnitus.


PMID: 6915835 [Indexed for MEDLINE]