Repeated Modified Nerve Blocks and Auditory and Non-Auditory Nerve Stimulation

Can someone explain if this treatment would affect a large variety of people suffering from tinnitus for different reasons or if it's likely to target a specific 'type'? Or how long it would last?

This sounds awesome but seems there is a lot of suspicion here...

Also, this sounds to me like this is oriented towards people with new tinnitus and not chronic sufferers?

"Age and tinnitus duration were also associated with poor clinical outcomes because of the likelihood of chronic maladaptive neuroplasticity and complex causes (for example, age-related hearing loss, cochlear cell degeneration, or psycho-emotional pathology) of auditory and non-auditory systems. Therefore, tinnitus should be treated as early as possible after its onset because auditory maladaptive neuroplasticity refractory to the treatment occurs ≥3 months after tinnitus onset."

 

Hoping this is legit and helps millions of us.

There is most certainly a connection to the facial nerves and auditory nerves hence the somatosensory tinnitus that many of us develop in response to sound.

Even if this works, I think there is still a market for Dr. Shore's device. We need all the help we can get, there is literally nothing there for us now!

 

How do you expect anyone to know those answers?

 

Why do you say it like this? Even with health insurance there is no way to guarantee they would pay for this very experimental procedure. Also, my deductible is like $8k. I'm sure some others have even higher.

 

Because it seems like there are a number of people here that understand the medical language and details of the findings better than I ever could, and it seemed likely there may be something suggesting one or the other in it that I did not pick up on.

 

It was targeted at people with a range of etiologies. Positive effects were still observed after one year.

 

There is plenty of detail in the study on the types of tinnitus targeted. Each case and the noise experienced is broken down in detail and results are outlined.

 

I pray this is the answer we are all looking for this horrific condition.

 

I see that now. Very impressive.

 

Always happy to see new research and potential treatments!

 

Who’s gonna fly out to South Korea to try this?

 

I have been in touch with Dr. Brendan Conlon's secretary (Lenire) and I'm hoping to get a June appointment if he takes me on as a patient. He is booked out until May. I will bring this research to him and ask him to bring the treatment to his main clinic here in Ireland.

Please, everyone circulate this as much as possible. It seems too good to be true, but the paper is so well written and well referenced it is hard to believe that there is nothing behind it. The results seem so good even for chronic sufferers with all sorts of noises and duration of condition.

Let us be optimistic.

There is as much chance that this South Korean doctor has nailed it as most (very low manpower) tinnitus researchers based in Universities.

 

Apparently, 2 of the authors of this paper have a clinic - presumably already treating people...

I could be wrong, so don't jump on me... But if anyone knows, please let us know, as I'll make contact with them.

 

I've just emailed the Bionics Institute in Melbourne to see if they would be interested in looking into this.

 

This sounds very likely. They probably already do this treatment on a regular basis.

Here is all the contact information that I could find:

Dr. Sirh’s Pain Clinic,
44 Seocho-daero 78-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul 06626, Korea
Tel: +82-2-522-8067
Fax: +82-2-522-8068
E-mail: Hunman0405@naver.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8617-9448

Anyone here from South Korea that can reach out to him? Would be much appreciated!

 

Thank you. What we need is to spread the word as much as possible. The more I read the paper, the more I am convincing myself that this could be the global solution we all need.

The more academics/doctors/ENTs/neuros/researchers and even the common people like you and me are discussing this, the swifter it will become either:

a.) an established treatment with great success
b.) totally debunked.

I feel the paper and its structure gives great hope.

 

Surely we have some South Korean members on Tinnitus Talk?

Well done on finding the contact details

 

I've sent this study to Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Really hoping our institutions look into this further.

 

I just received an email back from one of the researchers. They obviously do the procedure at their clinic and the price seems reasonable.

 

Well, anyone got a few thousand bucks, 4-6 weeks of telework, and a hankering for kimbop? We need a brave soul to fly over and try it out.

 

I know that If I did not have crippling hyperacusis, I would be packing my luggage now.

 

@Freerunner, good start that they did reply promptly.

For me 15x$300 would be a bargain.

For me the questions are:

What kind of risks would be involved?

Is almost 90% of improvement realistic?

What bad side effects have other patients had historically?

How many tinnitus patients has he treated?

How many tinnitus patients does he treat per week now?

Does he have interest to help clinics in Europe and the USA to set up similar treatment protocols based on his needle patents?

Maybe we could put a list down together of our questions and send them as on mail so he doesn’t have to answer us all. Answers to the most common questions could be at the top of this thread?

 

I already asked some of the questions you listed and once they respond, I will let you guys know.

 

Agree. For me, the best way to approach this would be a very polite email, stating that the writer is a member of a tinnitus organisation with thousands of members and that he or she has come across the research paper and is really interested by the results of the treatment. On behalf of the organisation, he or she has collected some questions and is wondering if the clinic would be kind enough to answer some of the questions submitted by the organisation's members in order to provide further detail on the treatment and its results.

I would not go crazy on forensic analysis (i.e. how many patients are treated each day or week), but ask valuable questions, taking care not to give the impression that we are trying to dismantle their clinic or disprove their findings.

I would be interested to know how many patients have now been treated in total, including the study and what the current success rate is taking all patients into account. Also, I'm wondering how long one might have to be there/how long in between each treatment.

I wonder, also, if they would be prepared to do a couple of research cases for our benefit (probably not, seeing as the patients in the study appeared to have paid for the treatment).

 

I had a look around this morning for Roland Schaette's (the other reviewer of the paper) contact details to ask whether he'd be happy to put a few words down in this thread. I haven't been able to find an email address for him though. If anyone can find an address please email him (or pass the address to me and I'd be happy to drop him a line).

I read Sirh's paper again. Biology's complicated! However, what I can now understand a little better (I think), and what reassures me a little more comes from statements like this [my emphasis]:

However, in the last 15 years, we have investigated and observed that the facial nerve and assumed vestibulocochlear nerve and its pathways can be stimulated through placement of a thin injection needle with a hubcap close to the facial nerve, without electrical and manual stimulation, to avoid the known risks and to improve treatment effects.

Upon first read of the paper, references to non-stimulation concurred with references to stimulation and confused me. Re-reading it, however, the author seems to be stating that the very act of placing a hyperdermic needle close to these relevant nerves is what performs the stimulation. From a safety perspective I think this is very encouraging, despite the needle being left in-situ for 30-40 minutes in chronic patients.

 

A very balanced, anonymous, comment. Worth re-posting here:

 

If they are comfortable speaking English, I’d say they are ideal Podcast guests. Chop chop @Markku, @Hazel

Maybe a nice discount code for Tinnitus Talk members

 

I haven't read the paper but a part of me is thinking it could just be marketing for their private clinic. The lack of a control group/placebo is not good.

 

r.schaette@ucl.ac.uk (from here, the Name column contains hyperlinked email addresses).

 

It’s definitely not a good thing which is why there needs to be further studies on it.