Regular "Ringing" Tinnitus After Pulsatile DAVF Cure

Hey all, happy holidays!

I'm not new to Tinnitus Talk, but I'm new to the tinnitus threads on here as I used to live on the pulsatile tinnitus threads. Back in early 2018 I had PT. Long story short, it was finally discovered I had a DAVF and I had a embolization surgery with ONYX to fix the DAVF. I woke up and the PT whooshing was gone. All good right? Well, no so fast...

Since that surgery, I have had regular ringing tinnitus. It appears to be on the same side (left) that the DAVF was on. I'm really curious if it could be caused by some sort of nerve damage.

Anyway, fast forward to now and I have done some audiograms with my ENT. Shortly after the surgery, my hearing still checked out ok. However, over the past year I felt as if the tinnitus was getting worse so I recently went back for another audiogram. This time I show mild to moderate hearing loss in high frequencies in my left ear. Makes sense... the ringing is high pitched and probably effects my hearing of high frequencies. My right ear is still pretty much ok. Matter of fact I found a hearing test online that plays different frequencies and I for sure can tell my left ear is worse than my right in the higher frequencies... 4 kHz to 8 kHz.

I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I've started focusing my research on single sided tinnitus and hearing loss in one ear. I really don't think it is caused by loud noises. Again, it set in immediately after the surgery. The surgeon unfortunately shook it off and didn't offer any sort of reason. I would think if it was loud noise, it would be both ears.

I've read Ginkgo Biloba or Betahistine can help.

Sometimes I wonder if it is blood flow problem... after all the DAVF is a bloodflow issue.

Too much blood flow? Not enough blood flow? Nerve damage?

I'm really scared it is going to keep getting worse.

Thanks,
Doug

 

I'm convinced that's what tinnitus is in its entirety.

 

Yea, I hear ya. I'm wondering if when the DAVF shutdown, it stopped blood from getting to a place it really needed to be. Or the surgery itself caused some sort of nerve damage.

 

I've had 3 embolizations for 2 different DAVF. I wasn't left with any issues with two of them, but one caused some nerve issues with my scalp. It's certainly possible. It may also die down a bit. It depends on the location of the fistula. There's quite an inflammatory response to the onyx initially, and your vasculature re-vascularizes over time as well.