What causes sudden deafness and tinnitus? Can it be treated?

Sudden deafness and tinnitus can cause great harm to people. Not only do they suffer physically, but they can also suffer severe psychological trauma. Therefore, understanding the causes of sudden tinnitus is very important for people's mental health. In fact, sudden deafness and tinnitus are not that scary and can be treated.

Sudden deafness is a type of sensorineural deafness, which generally refers to a sudden onset of hearing. Within a few hours, the hearing in the affected ear is almost completely lost. In addition, the patient will also feel numbness, blockage, and tinnitus in the ear. Some patients will also experience dizziness, nausea, vomiting, etc.

The cause of sudden deafness is not very clear, but according to many experimental studies, insufficient blood supply to the inner ear is the most likely cause. The blood vessels supplying the inner ear are long and thin, and many factors can affect the blood supply of this blood vessel; for example, heart disease and low blood pressure can cause insufficient blood vessel pressure; high blood pressure has little effect in the early stages, but over time can reduce blood vessel elasticity; atherosclerosis can cause blood vessels to narrow. Long-term heavy smoking, alcoholism, mental stress, insomnia, etc. can cause temporary spasm of the blood supply to the inner ear and interrupt the blood supply. In addition, patients with weak constitution and long-term bedriddenness often form small blood clots in their blood vessels. After the blood clots break off, they may flow with the blood to the blood vessels in the inner ear and block them.

After the inner ear is ischemic, the hair cells that sense sound will degenerate or even die; the auditory nerve that transmits signals will also temporarily lose function, causing sudden hearing loss. If the treatment is timely, the changes in hair cells and auditory nerves can return to normal, and hearing will be restored accordingly; if there is no effective treatment within two weeks, the hair cells will die in large numbers and the changes in the auditory nerve will be difficult to recover. At this time, further treatment will be very difficult.

The treatment is mainly to dilate blood vessels. Danshen liquid can be used to dilate blood vessels, ATP and vitamin B1 and vitamin B12 can be used to nourish nerves, and hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment can be used to increase the oxygen content in the blood. In addition, acupuncture can also be used as an auxiliary treatment; for patients with severe conditions and suspected vascular blockage, pit viper thrombin, pure thrombin, and defibrase can be used for treatment, among which defibrase has the best effect. The above treatment lasts for 15-30 days as a course. If it is still ineffective after two courses, then there is little hope for hearing recovery. Generally, more than 90% of patients have varying degrees of hearing recovery.

To prevent sudden deafness, you should strengthen physical exercise to reduce the formation of blood clots, avoid excessive smoking and drinking, relax appropriately after intense work, and avoid playing all night. In addition, diseases such as heart disease and high blood pressure should be actively treated.