Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for Tinnitus

This study will test the safety and effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for patients with a big or very big problem with tinnitus (a sensation of noise in the head).

First received: November 13, 2013
Last updated: February 3, 2014
Last verified: February 2014

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01988688

 

J Neurosurg. 2013 Jan;118(1):192-4. doi: 10.3171/2012.9.JNS12594. Epub 2012 Oct 19.
A stroke of silence: tinnitus suppression following placement of a deep brain stimulation electrode with infarction in area LC.

Abstract
The authors report on a case of tinnitus suppression following deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson disease. A perioperative focal vascular injury to area LC, a locus of the caudate at the junction of the head and body of the caudate nucleus, is believed to be the neuroanatomical correlate. A 56-year-old woman underwent surgery for implantation of a DBS lead in the subthalamic nucleus to treat medically refractory motor symptoms. She had comorbid tinnitus localized to both ears. The lead trajectory was adjacent to area LC. Shortly after surgery, she reported tinnitus suppression in both ears. Postoperative MRI showed focal hyperintensity of area LC on T2-weighted images. At 18 months, tinnitus localized to the ipsilateral ear remained completely silenced, and tinnitus localized to the contralateral ear was substantially suppressed due to left area LC injury. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of a discrete injury to area LC that resulted in bilateral tinnitus suppression. Clinicians treating patients with DBS may wish to include auditory phantom assessment as part of the neurological evaluation.

 

If efficacious, this therapy won't be available for many years. Currently, a DBS pilot study for tinnitus is recruiting members. See this link.

The estimated completion date is March, 2019. If anyone is seriously considering this treatment for intractable, intrusive tinnitus, I'd contact the researchers at the link above.

 

I have met Dr. Steven Cheung who leads this study. A brilliant man.
Although intrusive, this research to me is the most hopeful to date.
Taking into account that the basal ganglia of the brain acts as a gating system for tinnitus. And has already worked on several Parkinson's patients to completely suppress their tinnitus.

 

I had some contact with the people doing this research and they implied that even if I wasn't in the area, they might be able to pay some/all associated travel costs.

Note, though -- this is a phase I trial. That means they really have no idea if it will work, or not. This procedure is used in other conditions, so there are a number of people out there walking around with these implants. But, this is experimental brain surgery, and is extremely risky for any number of reasons.

 

A new PhD paper has been released for the treatment of tinnitus with Deep Brain Stimulation.

"Exploring deep brain stimulation as a treatment for tinnitus":

 

I’m an operating room RN and participate weekly in DBS cases for Parkinson’s. One of the surgeons I work with has seen occasional tinnitus reduction as an unintentional side effect of DBS treatment. This technology has come a long way since this thread was started. The equipment used has come a long way and the surgery is faster than it used to be. We’ve started taking CT scans in the operating room and matching it up with live action 3D brain tracking. My hospital even has a robot that helps with electrode placement.

In my opinion the things holding this back are that it still requires surgery to access the brain. We still need to drill a hole in your skull in order to place the electrodes and make a pocket elsewhere to place a generator. Once in the brain they need to have a target they believe will relieve the tinnitus.

This is absolutely brain surgery. The OR time, anesthesia costs, and equipment costs will be massive. It will be a tough sell to get insurance to pay for this.

Until DBS can be done reliably without being this invasive it won’t be a viable treatment.

 

Deep Brain Stimulation Offers New Hope for Severe Tinnitus

Bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the caudate nucleus appears safe and effective for patients with severe refractory tinnitus, early research suggests.

Results of a small open-label study showed a 60% to 80% response rate for efficacy outcomes.

In addition, surgery-related and stimulation-related adverse events (AEs) were transient and expected.


Dr Steven Cheung

"For scientists, this is very exciting, and it represents a new biology," lead author Steven W. Cheung, MD, professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, told Medscape Medical News.

Full text study article:
Phase I trial of caudate deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant tinnitus

 

Tinnitus: Ringing in the Brain | Josef...

He talked about this as well. Looks promising.

 

It does sound promising. Years away from hitting the operating table though. Will be very expensive, too.

I would be a guinea pig for this, but I would be disqualified immediately due to anxiety etc.

I saw one of the participants had a lawn mower and table saw sound to his tinnitus.

 

No way this works.

 

Why do you say that?

 

It works.

It's insanely invasive... it's when you're super chronic and basically going for a mild lobotomy... if it works, and I think 60 to 80 percent are not the most reassuring figures, you may feel a lot better.

There is one bloke on this forum who had it done as I recall and said he'd do it again. If the shit hits the fan really bad, it's an option. @spedgas explained the procedure extensively. Last resort, but glad they are researching it, they are getting in and meddling with the brain and brain stem and learning a whole lot.

 

I thought I changed my comment.

 

How much did it help the bloke?

So it doesn't eradicate tinnitus, it just lessens it?

I just saw "has seen occasional tinnitus reduction" in spedgas' post.

 

My tinnitus spiked for no apparent reason this morning. I couldn't fall sleep for 3-4 hours as it kept getting noticeably worse. It still remains very loud, very severe. No clue why.

Even before the spike, I haven't had a single day of relief since this has all started.

I'd go for this treatment. If it helps reduce tinnitus, why not. I'll take my chances. When you're facing the end of the barrel anyways, you have little to lose.

 

As far as I've read, DBS usually doesnt completely remove the motor symptoms of parkinson's either. It's usually a 40-60% improvement. So a 60-80% improvement for tinnitus is similar. We're one to two decades away to precisely silence each hyperactive cell in the brain to reduce tinnitus by 100%. We'll get there when Neuralink's method has been perfected.

 

Ah yeah, I read about this a couple months ago. https://sonimodul.ch/home/parkinson/
It's essentially a precision method to fry parts of the brain with ultrasound that have become hyperactive and cause parkinson's. The result is about equal to DBS, but far less invasive. The downside is that the tissue in the brain is lost. DBS on the other side corrects the abnormal behaviour.

In theory maybe we can a two-step process in the future that hopefully works for tinnitus too:
1. fry the faulty parts
2. use some medicine to regrow new neurons. Check this out: https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/videos/health/there-drug-can-actually-reverse-brain-damage

Edit: pretty interesting read actually: https://sonimodul.ch/home/concept/

 

As I recall it helped him a lot.

This is a last resort procedure, in my darkest hours I was very open to it. If my tinnitus went back up to a constant 10, this is the procedure.

I consider it a lobotomy in laymen’s terms. This is an operation on the brain and brain stem. That would qualify as invasive. They have been doing this in California for some years I believe and if you check clinical trials, I bet they are still recruiting. Brave people have undergone this surgery and have given scientists a rare opportunity to actually get in there and meddle with the brain. It’s fascinating, and nice to know it’s there as a back up.

In the future they may be able to do this surgery with absolute precision and gain fantastic results. That’s not an unrealistic vision.

 

UCSF does them, I know they recently finished one and the results should be published on a journal soon.

 

You are most correct. UCSF, fascinating and cutting edge research... I think this may be one of the ways to help chronic sufferers... fingers crossed for good luck.

Take care CBM.