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While hearing loss is the greatest risk factor associated with developing tinnitus, some tinnitus patients exhibit no hearing loss on conventional pure-tone audiometry (PTA). This study was developed to assess whether tinnitus patients with normal hearing as measured via conventional PTA would exhibit differences from normal controls upon extended high-frequency (EHF) audiometric evaluation. In total, 102 tinnitus patients were separated into unilateral and bilateral tinnitus groups. Age- and sex-matched controls without tinnitus were enrolled. No significant differences were observed when comparing EHF audiometry results in the 9–14 kHz range between controls and tinnitus patients, with only left-sided tinnitus ears exhibiting higher hearing thresholds than contralateral ears at 9, 10, and 14 kHz. Relative to normal controls, the hearing thresholds in the 2–8 kHz range for tinnitus ears were significantly increased. Relative to controls, tinnitus patients with normal hearing did not exhibit any significant hearing loss in the EHF range. Unexpectedly, tinnitus patients with normal hearing exhibited significant hidden hearing loss in the conventional frequency range rather than in the EHF range. For patients with normal hearing, it appears to be unnecessary to conduct EHF examinations to detect hearing loss in the EHF range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tinnitus is common in vestibular schwannoma patients, but the postoperative tinnitus status of these patients and related factors remain unclear. To identify preoperative and operative factors associated with postoperative tinnitus status. Postoperative outcomes were retrospectively assessed in 237 vestibular schwannomas (VS) patients with preoperative tinnitus and 90 VS patients without tinnitus. When evaluating patients with preoperative tinnitus, there were significant differences in rates of improvement, no change, and worsening of tinnitus for the translabyrinthine (TL) and retrosigmoid (RS) approaches. Of patients without preoperative tinnitus, there was a significant difference in rates of not developing tinnitus and new-onset tinnitus. Similar results were observed with respect to preoperative hearing. Least-squares analyses revealed that surgical approach and preoperative hearing were independent predictors of postoperative tinnitus. Preoperative pure tone averages for TL group patients that did not develop postoperative tinnitus were 85.8 dB, whereas in patients that developed new-onset tinnitus they were significantly lower (54.9 dB). Tinnitus prognosis in VS patients is better following TL microsurgery relative to RS microsurgery and is also better in patients with worse preoperative hearing. New-onset tinnitus was more likely to occur in patients with better preoperative hearing that underwent tumor removal via a TL approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]