Intratympanic Bupivacaine for Tinnitus Treatment

Here is an interesting idea on using the anesthetic bupivacaine for tinnitus. It is based on one case of long term suppression (>30 days) of chronic tinnitus when the drug was used with lidocaine during a peripheral nerve block. Bupivacaine affects K2p channels--previously known as delayed rectifier channels. I don't understand these channels well, but Keppra also affects them.

Anyway, bupivacaine is another potential treatment, and this one may also work for chronic tinnitus, given the one study. I am not certain it would help chronic sufferers if injected intraympanically; however, it would probably shut down acute tinnitus.

http://www.hoajonline.com/journals/pdf/2049-9752-2-23.pdf

Here is more information on K2p channels if anyone is interested. This might've already been cited in @Zimichael 's excellent analysis of keppra.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181484/

 

hi jazz

this is strange conclusion,the guy is concluding that intratympan bupivacaine could help but he didn t done any test or trial to prove it

are we supposed to be his guinea pig?

This is unfinished business ....

 

He's submitting the idea to the research community. Many potentially good ideas appear in the medical literature, but few are acted on. Basically, you need an entrepreneurial scientist or drug company to come forward and do something with the idea.

This is what happened with AM 101. See this link.

Actually, bupivacaine might be as or more efficacious than AM 101, which is also based on an anesthetic (esketamine). You may not know this but lidocaine, another anesthetic, has also been used to treat tinnitus. But it is short acting and therefore not effective as a real treatment.

http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=59​

With all these potential anesthetic applications, it's possible that we will have several drugs on the market one day to help with acute tinnitus. In fact, someone is testing another version of lidocaine that might be longer acting than how the drug has been currently used.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19950377​