Tinnitus, a look at diagnosis from electrophysiology
Keywords:
electrophysiology, hearing loss, auditory brainstem evoked potential, evoked potentials, tinnitusAbstract
Introduction: The term tinnitus refers to the perception of sounds in the ear or head, which do not exist in reality. It may be accompanied by other symptoms, which impacts the quality of life of those who suffer from it.
Objective: To search for electrophysiological tools that allow the assessment of the functional state of the auditory system in patients suffering from tinnitus, given that there is no single specific test for this purpose.
Methods: A bibliographic search was carried out in the PubMed and SciELO databases in English and Spanish. The search equations used the following keywords: electrophysiology, evoked potentials, otoacoustic emissions, electrocochleography, electroencephalography, auditory brainstem response, hearing loss, long latency evoked potentials, and diagnostic, all in combination with the term tinnitus.
Results: Nine investigations, 10 reviews, 7 systematic reviews and meta-analyses, 1 case report, and 3 guidelines were included in the review.
Conclusions: The information provided by the reviewed literature supports the combined use of electrophysiological techniques to objectively evaluate tinnitus and its response to treatment.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Margarita Minou Báez-Martín, Lázaro Gómez-Fernández
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