Management of tinnitus induced by brainstem and cerebellar infarction associated with complications of cerebello-pontine angle surgery

Abstract

Following surgery in the USA in 1992 to remove a large right cerebello-pontine angle tumour, a 39-year-old woman developed severe brainstem and cerebellar infarction. This left her with severe visual impairment and ataxia. She became able to communicate by means of an adapted finger-spelling alphabet. She had total hearing loss in the right ear and a mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss in the left ear, and severe tinnitus heard throughout the head. Additionally, she experienced hypersensitivity to sound above normal conversational levels, which evoked a synaesthetic feeling of coldness across her upper torso. Previous linear analogue hearing aid fitting had not been beneficial for either hearing or tinnitus. Careful fitting of a digital hearing aid, together with tinnitus counselling, inhibited the patient's tinnitus to 25 per cent of its former intensity after a six month acclimatisation period, and improved communication.