Objective: To study the efficacies of intratympanic prednisolone and dexamethasone injection for the subjective tinnitus.
Method: A prospective study was designed to compare the efficacies of intratympanic prednisolone injection, intratympanic dexamethasone injection and carbamazepine by oral administration for subjective tinnitus. Seventy-three cases (78 ears) with subjective tinnitus for more than one month and treated by conservative therapy (such as vasodilator agent, Vitamin B, etc. by oral intake. ) were involved. The patients were randomized into 3 groups. Thirty-four cases (35 ears) were included in prednisolone group, 18 cases (18 ears) in dexamethasone group with intratympanic injection of prednisolone or dexamethasone, and 21 cases (25 ears) in carbamazepine group as a control group with oral administration of carbamazepine. All of the cases in intratympanic perfusion group were injected twice in the first week, then once a week consecutively. The patients were acupunctured 4-5 times in the whole course of treatment. All of the cases accepted Betahistine Mesylate, Mecobalamin and Vitamin B1 by oral intake at the same time. Pure tone audiogram and tinnitus matching were tested before the treatment immediately after the course of treatment, and were tested again after half a year's following up.
Result: All of the cases accepted the whole treatment and were followed up for half a year successfully. The effective rate of the prednisolone group, dexamethasone group and the carbamazepine group was 48.6%, 33.3%, 44.0%, respectively; the control rate half a year after the treatment was 45.7%, 27.8%, 36.0%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the effective rate and control rate between intratympanic perfusion group and carbamazepine group. There is a statistically significant difference both in the effective rate and the control rate between the prednisolone group and the dexamethasone group. Prednisolone may be better than dexamethasone in intratympanic perfusion for subjective tinnitus.
Conclusion: Intratympanic steroid injection has a positive effect on subjective tinnitus and may be considered to be an alternative treatment to subjective tinnitus.