Tinnitus and Ear Pain After Taking Diuretics Furosemide and Acetazolamide (Diamox)

Hello, I am new to Tinnitus Talk and I’m looking for some advice. I was prescribed two diuretics, Furosemide and Diamox (Acetazolamide), and within three days I developed loud bilateral tinnitus.

Two days after the tinnitus started, my little boy screamed and I got instant and severe bilateral ear pain and pressure. Now I’m starting to feel dizzy.

It’s only been 7 days since this started and I’m wondering if I can do anything to stop this from getting worse while I’m in the “acute” phase. I do not have hearing loss fortunately, but I’m absolutely terrified.

I’ve now read that I likely have ear poisoning from too much medication getting into my cochlea because I was on two ototoxic medications at once. It sounds like it could be permanent.

I’m very scared. Any advice would be very appreciated.

 

So sorry you’re going through this. Have you informed your doctor about what’s happening and are you still taking the meds? Your doctor should find non ototoxic alternatives, but make sure to look them up/ask about them here.

Try to stay calm as much as you are able. Tinnitus will likely improve over time and with being off the meds.

 

Get off those meds as soon as possible.

 

Both Furosemide and Acetazolamide are quite bad in high doses for tinnitus. In tandem I'd say flat out dangerous at any dose. It abolishes the endocochlear potential as well as causes local vasocontraction in the stria vascularis. You'll have temporary edema/reperfusion injury in those areas.

As you come off I'd suggest just keep your salt/fluid normal (1.5g/day sodium, your 8 glasses water at regular times spaced out through the day evenly, no sudden amounts).

Works great for hypertension... but risks.

It may not be permanent as this is a blood vessel/electrolyte problem, they can repair and ionic balance can come back.

It's not like you were taking Lasix AND antibiotics/chemo drugs. Your chances of reversal are good.

 

Thank you for the thoughtful replies. I’m glad to hear it could be temporary. So I only took one 250 mg tablet of Diamox and three 10 mg tablets of Furosemide over three days before I stopped. So it wasn’t a huge dose.

The doctor won’t prescribe Prednisone though as I don’t have hearing loss. Does that sound right? Or should I try to get some somehow?

And I guess my other question is when you say reversal, does that generally take quite a bit of time? I’m not noticing any improvement as of day 8, which is concerning to me.

 

I can't tell you what to do.

If it were me, I'd use a past audiogram to compare with the day 8, and if things weren't better, I would take steroids... but that is me. If you do take them, be really, really, careful about tapering off slowly.

The Diamox and Furosemide are absolutely enough to cause tinnitus. Taking both in tandem is the dangerous part. Reversal doesn't mean full recovery medically.