Management of tinnitus in patients with presbycusis.

Sensorineural hearing loss in elderly patients (presbycusis) relatively often coexists with annoying tinnitus (termed presbytinnitus [PT] by Claussen). The purpose of this study was to verify the conditions of improvement in patients treated for PT. We fitted with hearing aids 33 PT patients (ages 60-89 years) and questioned them about subjective hearing results. Assessment tools included comprehensive audiology and a subjective self-assessment survey of tinnitus characteristics. All patients had very good tolerance of the hearing aids; 28 reported that they had considerable reduction in PT intensity. Fitting PT patients with hearing aids is usually effective. In patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus, fitting the impaired ear is sufficient. Individuals with bilateral complaints require bilateral fitting. Effectiveness of fitting in the affected group of patients depended on speech discrimination scores before fitting. The improvement scores were higher in patients with more aggravated symptoms and did not depend on history of prolonged exposure to excessive noise.