Table 1.
Causes of tinnitus.
| Objective tinnitus | Vascular | Arteriovenous fistulas: congenital, acquired, Paget’s disease |
| Arteriovenous fistulas: congenital, acquired | ||
| Venous anomalies: abnormal size/location of internal jugular bulb | ||
| Pressure exerted by the sternocleidomastoid muscle on internal jugular vein | ||
| Jugular vein stenosis | ||
| Abnormal course of the vessels in the pontocerebellar angle | ||
| Intracranial tumors: meningioma, angioneuromyoma, aneurysm, hemangioma | ||
| Mechanical | Clonic spasms of soft palate muscles | |
| Clonic spasms of inner ear muscles | ||
| Disorders of auditory tube patency | ||
| Temporomandibular joint disease | ||
| Foreign body moving within the external auditory canal | ||
| Subjective tinnitus | Originating in the outer ear | Mechanical occlusion of external auditory canal |
| Originating in the middle ear | Tympanic cavity effusion | |
| Otosclerosis | ||
| Originating in the inner ear | Acoustic trauma | |
| Drug ototoxicity: salicylates, ototoxic antibiotics | ||
| Viral (mumps, flu) and bacterial (scarlet fever) infections | ||
| Ménière’s disease | ||
| Trauma: barotrauma, temporal bone fracture | ||
| Middle ear damage in the course of chronic diseases: diabetes, atherosclerosis, thyroid disease, anemia | ||
| Originating in the auditory nerve | Acoustic neuroma | |
| Auditory neuritis and meningitis | ||
| Originating in cortical structures | Demyelination diseases | |
| Central nervous system tumors | ||
| Other | Psychogenic | |
| Auditory hallucinations in the course of psychiatric disorders | ||
| Spinal osteoarthritis |