Head Injury Induced Tinnitus — 2 Months In

Hey readers, I hope everyone’s tinnitus is a bit lighter today. I suffered a traumatic head/brain injury on Oct 8 (brain bleed and skull fractures). I noticed the tinnitus the day I came home from the hospital. It’s been about 2 months and I want to believe it’s faded a bit, but that might just be habitation, or denial. Anyone here develop head injury induced tinnitus, with positive outcomes?

Thanks,
Jason

 

When one habituates, one can still hear the sound as loud as ever when one searches for it. It sounds like your T had actually gotten a little quieter. This is a good sign. It ought to continue to fade.

 

Thanks Bill. I’m a little nervous as my T is SUPER reactive. For example, I just ran downstairs to grab something to drink, and my T multiplied by 2 in volume. Thirty minutes later, it’s super quiet. I also cannot be in loud environments without my T spiking there.

 

I agree that your T is showing good sign if you are already having quiet time. There are many prior posts on tinnitus induced by head or neck injury. Check out similar threads provided below. God bless.

 

Thought I would give an update on my recovery/tinnitus, since it's been a little over four months since onset. It's amazing how much I found out, and how much I have to decide to do. Reminder - this all started after a traumatic brain injury and temporal bone fracture. Found out I have conductive hearing loss in the left ear. Hearing starts to decline at 6K Hz. After the fluid drained from my ear, the ENT decided to do another CT scan as it would be more visible without the fluid. My CT scan results were sent to the ENT, and another Neurotologist, who zoomed in on my CT scan, which shows that my ossicle bones are disconnected. There seems to be a larger gap between my ossicle bones in my left ear, most likely caused by the temporal bone fracture. Neurotologist said it seems to match with the amount of conductive hearing loss in my left ear. The only way to find out for sure is to do middle ear exploration surgery. The only way to repair those bones would be to replace them with prosthetic bones. He cannot guarantee that the tinnitus will go away tho, but it is very likely that my hearing will improve. Neurotologist wants me to decide based on my hearing loss, NOT on the tinnitus. So, now, I just have to decide wether or not to proceed with surgery. Honestly I'm 50/50 right now. It is a relief to get some answers tho.

 

Hi all, another update. I chose to have the middle ear exploration surgery. There were a few issues with my ossicular chain..

The first bone (malleus) actually had a small fracture. Doctor filled/fixed the fracture. First bone (malleus) and second bone (incus) were separated so sound was not flowing. Doctor placed a calcium deposit prosthesis in between them two. The third bone (stapes) was being pushed down by scar tissue on the cochlea. She couldn’t replace the stapes after fixing the first two bones (she compares it to a seesaw). So instead she removed as much scar tissue as she can, and then tested the movement of the bones and she said my hearing should improve. If it doesn’t, second surgery (for the stapes) is needed.

Time will tell. Hopefully both my hearing and tinnitus will improve.

 

Hi, is your tinnitus only in one ear?

 

Hi @rdz, yes my tinnitus is only in my left ear. The same ear the trauma happened.

 

Do you have your audiogram and are you willing to post it here? (blank out any personal info)

If you need to do stapes surgery, did they mention what kind of surgery it would be? (I'm familiar with stapedotomy/stapendectomy)

 

JLP can you update us please??? I'm having ossicular chain revision soon. I had it done on 7-16 but some of the bone cement has come loose and I need to do another surgery. Lucky me...