Reza Samarei - Associate Professor, Urmia University of Medical Science, Urmia,Iran

Introduction:Tinnitus include 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 the optimal solution is presented. The purpose of this study was to determine the causes of tinnitus in patients referred to ENT Clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia, ۲۰۱۲-۲۰۱۳.Materials and Methods:This is a cross-sectional analytic study that was performed on ۱۸۴ 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 ۱۱۱ men and ۷۳ women, mean age was ۵۰.۶ years. ۱۶۸ patients (۹۱.۳%) had non-pulsatile tinnitus and the rest had pulsatile tinnitus. Average hearing loss in dB patients ۳۱.۴, ۷۹.۹% were of sensory neurons kind, and ۱۲.۵% of patients did not show any hearing loss in audiometry. In total, ۹۰.۲% of the cases did we detect; most causes of tinnitus were noise (۱۹.۶%), ototoxicity (۱۶.۸%) and presbycusis (۱۶.۳%). The most common causes of tinnitus were noise with ۳۱.۵% in men and ototoxicity with ۲۷.۴% in women. Between age and hearing loss of patients, there was a significant relationship (۰.۰۰۱> 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.

tinnitus, noise, acoustic trauma, ototoxicity, presbycusis