[Study by auditory evoked potentials of the efficacy of transcutaneous electric stimulation in the treatment of tinnitus]

Thirty patients complaining about tinnitus were treated by transcutaneous tragal electrical stimulation. The effect of this treatment has been evaluated by BASR recordings before and after treatment. Taking into account the subjective results three groups are described. The first one (10 patients) is relieved of tinnitus. In second and third group the symptoms still exist, whatever the electrode's position (anode or cathode in tragal position). When BASR are studied before the electrical stimulation no inter-subjects difference can be found. After stimulation, the left delta I-V latency is significatively lengthened, and the wave I latency is shortened in the first group. The study of the two other groups do not reveal any difference between the pre- and the post- stimulation evaluation. So the BASR appears to be a good predictive tool for tinnitus suppression by electrical stimulation.