Causes of Tinnitus in Patients Referred to ENT Clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia, 2012-2013

INTRODUCTION Tinnitus includes all the sounds perceived by the patient, without any external stimulus that affects all aspects of life; there is no cure for most patients. Given that tinnitus and hearing of the ear are common complaints of patients in clinics and due to the impossibility of cure at the present time, it is necessary to set up common causes of tinnitus to solve social problems and present optimal solutions. The purpose of this study was to determine the causes of tinnitus in patients referred to ENT Clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia, 2012-2013. MATERIALS & METHODS This is a cross-sectional analytic study that was performed on 184 patients with tinnitus referred to ENT clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital, Urmia. After examination, audiometry performed and questionnaires of tinnitus patients were completed. The results were analyzed by statistical SPSS software. RESULTS The study included 111 males and 73 females and the mean age was 50.6 years. 168 patients (91.3%) had non-pulsatile tinnitus and the rest had pulsatile tinnitus. The mean hearing loss in patients was 31.4 dB, 79.9% were of sensory neurons kind, and 12.5% of patients did not show any hearing loss in audiometry. In total, 90.2% of the cases were detected; most causes of tinnitus were noise (19.6%), ototoxicity (16.8%) and presbycusis (16.3%). The most common causes of tinnitus were noise with 31.5% in males and ototoxicity with 27.4% in females. Between age and hearing loss of patients, there was a significant relationship (0.001> P-value), but there was no significant relationship between gender and degree of hearing loss. DISCUSSION The most common cause of tinnitus (NIHL) is quite predictable, except by accident, you can completely avoid by reducing noise levels on the source and ear protection. By reasonable prescription of ototoxic medications particularly antibiotics can reduce the prevalence of tinnitus that causes sleep disorders and concentration problems, depression and anxiety and help the public health.