Noises in the ears – a signal of a tumor

Posted onMay 15, 2022 in Uncategorized

Acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor that leads to tinnitus and other symptoms: hearing loss on one side, pain and impaired movements of the mimic muscles of half of the face, speech impairment. With acoustic neuroma, the doctor prescribes surgical treatment or radiation therapy.

Many intracranial tumors lead to impaired cerebral circulation and increased intracranial pressure. Therefore, tinnitus can also be one of the symptoms of such pathologies.

Multiple sclerosis

It is a chronic disease that most often occurs between the ages of 15 and 40. All nerve fibers in the human body are covered with a special myelin sheath. It is necessary for the normal transmission of nerve impulses. In multiple sclerosis, the myelin sheath is destroyed, resulting in slow neuromuscular transmission.

The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are varied. In some people, the disease manifests itself in the form of numbness of a certain part of the body, for example, a limb, while others develop severe paralysis up to respiratory failure.

One of the possible symptoms of multiple sclerosis is tinnitus.

Depression and neuroses

Under certain conditions of the nervous system, the organ of hearing acquires an increased sensitivity to sounds, and its irritation occurs. This often leads to depression, neurosis (neurasthenia, hysterical neurosis), nervous breakdowns. The patient comes to the doctor’s office and complains of constant tinnitus, but during the examination and examination, no objective violations are detected.

With psychogenic tinnitus, psychotherapy and appropriate medications are prescribed.

Taking medication for tinnitus

Some medications are ototoxic – they can damage nerve endings in the inner ear and cause tinnitus. This side effect is most pronounced in the following drugs:

  • antimalarials (quinine) and some antibiotics (eg streptomycin);
  • anti-inflammatory drugs (including aspirin);
  • antipsychotics (haloperidol);
  • antidepressants;
  • digitalis preparations;
  • furosemide.

If during the course of one of these drugs you begin to be bothered by tinnitus, you should stop taking it and immediately consult a doctor.

Only a doctor, based on the results of the examination and examinations, will establish which disease led to the occurrence of tinnitus. It is necessary to start the correct treatment of this symptom as early as possible in any pathology – this will help eliminate its root cause, prevent serious complications.

Experienced neurologists, therapists, cardiologists work in the Yusupov hospital, and there is all the necessary equipment . This allows us to provide patients with modern high- quality medical care.

Treating noise in the head and ears

Some diseases are accompanied by such an unpleasant phenomenon for a person as noise in the ears and head. Sometimes it is barely noticeable – the patient simply does not pay attention to it. But in some cases, the noise is constant, intense, painful, disrupts sleep – the sick person becomes anxious, irritable, trying with all his might to understand why he is so ill. You can answer the question of how to treat noise in the head by understanding the causes of this symptom, since approaches to therapy are different in different clinical situations.

Classification of noise in the head and ears

Due to the variety of variants of noise, they were classified – combined into groups, common for the causes of occurrence or features of the course of the disease.

EPFowler (1947) identified two types of tinnitus:

  • objective, or vibratory (occurs as a result of vibrations of any parts of the body, exists in reality, can be recorded using a phonendoscope or the use of other diagnostic methods);
  • subjective , or non- vibratory (felt by a person, but does not take place in reality, there is no source of hum in real life; it cannot be assessed from the outside; it is also called the term ” tinnitus “).

In their practice, doctors apply the classification of noise by reason and distinguish:

  • noise of the external, middle ear;
  • muscular;
  • vascular;
  • central;
  • peripheral noise.

Depending on the quality characteristics, there are:

  • one-sided or two-sided;
  • pulsating or monotonous;
  • arising from time to time or present constantly;
  • low-frequency hum or high-frequency squeak, ringing;
  • barely noticeable or strong, intense noise.

Causes

Noises in a person’s head are not always a symptom of pathology. A lot of sounds occur in our body in the process of its life – with blood flow, movement of joints, contraction and relaxation of muscles. They are masked by other sounds present around us and seem invisible to us, and in conditions of complete silence we can pay attention to them.

However, in most situations, extraneous noise, hum and other sounds in the head or ears are a sign of a pathological condition and a reason to contact a specialist.

Vibratory noise is caused by:

  • diseases of the temporomandibular joint;
  • neuromuscular diseases (the gaping of the auditory tube, myoclonus of the muscles of the soft palate, middle ear);
  • vascular changes (valvular heart disease, narrowing of the arteries, vein problems, arteriovenous shunts).

Subjective noise may be based on:

  • metabolic disorders (diabetes mellitus, thyrotoxicosis, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, atherosclerosis);
  • neoplasms of the brain;
  • neuroma of the VIII pair of cranial nerves;
  • diseases of the organ of hearing (sulfur plug, otitis media, sensorineural hearing loss, labyrinthitis, neoplasms, Meniere’s disease , injuries);
  • damage by toxic substances (drugs that have a toxic effect on the organ of hearing, methyl alcohol and others);
  • diseases of the spine (degenerative-dystrophic changes, instability, etc.);
  • neurological diseases (acute and chronic disorders of cerebral circulation, multiple sclerosis, neurocirculatory (vegetovascular) dystonia);
  • hypertonic disease;
  • mental disorders (neurasthenia and other neurotic disorders, depression, schizophrenia);
  • exposure to noise and vibration at work;
  • craniocerebral injuries (bruises, brain contusions).

Shpidonov Gennady Stanislavovich

Rostov State Medical University (neurology)

Strong, loud noise

It occurs in persons suffering from pathology at the level of the inner ear – the cochlea. It is experienced by people who have received a concussion, but the noise is accompanied by severe dizziness, significant hearing loss, and vomiting. Myogenic noise, the source of which is the muscles, can also be loud. It reminds patients of the chirping of a grasshopper, the crunch of snow, often heard even by others.

Noise and whistle

These symptoms occur with inflammation of the Eustachian tube – eustachitis . They can accompany bouts of dizziness in Meniere’s disease , occur in people who have undergone surgery on the stirrup for otosclerosis as a result of the development of consequences – postoperative complications.

Headache and noise

Such sensations in the ears are often noted in people with pathology in the cervical spine, suffering from chronic circulatory disorders in the brain.

Buzz in the head

It can also be the norm if it appears when a person is in a noisy environment (on a street with active traffic, in a crowded place, in a noisy production) and after returning to a quiet place gradually, within two hours, passes. Sometimes it manifests itself as a side effect of a number of drugs – antidepressants, anticancer drugs, certain antibiotics and NSAIDs. It can also occur in the postoperative period during operations on the organ of hearing – in this situation, it is the result of interference with the apparatus that conducts sounds, and after a while it passes on its own.

Ear congestion and noise in the head

Often, such symptoms are noted when there is a sulfuric plug in the ear that clogs the ear canal. They also occur with traumatic injury, acute inflammation or an allergic process in the outer or middle ear. In children, congestion is caused by adenoiditis – inflammation of the lymphoid tissue of the nasopharynx. Due to the fact that already in adolescence the tonsil undergoes reverse development, for adult patients this cause of congestion and noise in the ear is not relevant.

Constant, chronic noise in the head

More often than others, it is noted in elderly patients. In them, it is a consequence of several chronic causes at the same time – atherosclerosis and hypertension, osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, diabetes and others. All these pathological conditions, acquired by a person over the years, exacerbate each other and lead to chronic circulatory disorders in the brain, resulting in a constant buzzing noise, high-frequency ringing, whistling or buzzing in the head.

Diagnosis and treatment of noise in the head

When this unpleasant symptom appears, you should not waste time doing self-diagnosis, trying to cope with it yourself or hoping that “it will pass like that”. The correct decision of the patient is to seek help from a specialist.

Diagnosis of diseases accompanied by noise in the head is carried out by doctors of various profiles – therapists, otolaryngologists, neurologists, psychotherapists / psychiatrists. But most often, patients with such a problem turn first of all to a neurologist.

First of all, the task of the doctor is to specify the noise, to understand what exactly the patient feels – a high-frequency squeak, ringing, buzzing, buzzing or hum, one- or two-sided, accompanied by a pulsation or not; clarify the intensity of sensations and the symptoms that they could be accompanied by. If the patient does not tell himself, the doctor will ask leading questions about whether there is hearing loss, stuffiness in the ears, headache (usually occipital) pain, a tendency to increase or decrease in blood pressure, find out what somatic diseases the person who applied to him for an appointment suffers from human. Based on these data, the specialist will suggest what type of tinnitus he is dealing with – objective or subjective. Then he will conduct an objective examination – examine the organ of hearing, perform a number of tests necessary for making a diagnosis.

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