| Tinnitus is divided into subjective and objective tinnitus. The subjective tinnitus means symptoms of voice perception appear in ears or the cranial cavity without outside sound source stimuli or electric stimuli, and the voice lasts more than 5 minutes, which is also called pmlonged spontaneous tinnitus (PST). The objective tinnitus refers to that the voice sensed comes from the body, and transmits to the cochlea through bone conduction or middle ear cavity, such as voice of vascular pulsating, clicks of palate throat myoclonus, breath sounds of the auditory tube opening abnormally, etc. Most patients suffer subjective tinnitus. The tinnitus is a common symptom, pathological changes occurring in any positions of auditory system may lead to tinnitus, meanwhile, many diseases in the body may also accompany tinnitus, therefore, the reasons for tinnitus are complicated, the causes and pathogenic mechanisms are still indefinite.The incidence of tinnitus is high, patients with tinnitus often suffer sleep disorders, concentration problems and distractions etc. Long-term tinnitus brings great pains. According to researches and studies, tinnitus has the positive correlations with hearing loss. The more hearing loses, the easier tinnitus occurs. The incidence of tinnitus has an increasing tendency with age, and the symptoms are various, it can happen in both ears or in one ear, persistent or discontinuous, and the tinnitus can be high-pitched, low in tune, even the tune can be changed. The types of tinnitus voices are many and varied. The occurrence of tinnitus often accompanies other symptoms, sometimes anxiety, sadness, insomnia and influenza, changing of climates etc. can aggravate tinnitus, while after some rests and better sleep, and the tinnitus will be alleviated.In this study, we have conducted a questionnaire of 140 patients who suffer subjective tinnitus and visit of the Otolaryngology-head and Neck Surgery of the First Hospital of Jilin University from May to August of 2008, and made tests for them with pure tone. These 140 patients suffering subjective tinnitus contain 59 males and 81 females, including 1 patient suffering ceruminal impaction (0.71%), 1 suffering chronic suppurative otitis media with ceruminal impaction (0.71%), 4 patients with chronic suppurative otitis media (2.86%), 2 patients with traumatic perforation of tympanic membrane (1.43%), 8 patients of secretory otitis media (5.71%), 1 with otosclerosis (0.71%), 2 with Meniere's disease (1.43%), 4 with sudden deafness accompanied by tinnitus (2.86%), 6 with tinnitus after sudden deafness (4.29%), and 111 (79.29%) patients with sensorineural tinnitus and central tinnitus with unknown causes. After the two ceruminal impaction patients were surveyed, they were treated with cerumen wash, the symptoms of tinnitus disappear, which indicates that the tinnitus of these two patients was caused by ceruminal impaction.The analyses of the ages, genders, history of tinnitus, onsets, tinnitus sites, the tunes and loudness, aggravating and alleviating factors, relations of tinnitus to hearing loss, the impacts of tinnitus, contact history with noises, ototoxic drugs, and relations of ear diseases to diseases of the whole body will provide basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus. All the data collected will be analyzed by SPSS13.0 statistical software, the levels of significanceα=0.05, and two continuous information comparison in line with the normal distribution will be t-tested, while the enumeration data will be tested withχ2.In the 140 patients, the gender ratio is 1:1.4, the ages range from 9 to 83 with an average age is 42, the average age of males is 39 (with a standard deviation of 18), the average age of females is 44 (with a standard deviation of 15). After conducted t tests, p>0.05, the difference between males and females makes no statistical significance. The tinnitus concentrates in these three age groups of 31-40, 21-30 and 51-60. According to the studies, half of patients who come to hospital for treatment are acute tinnitus with a total number of 74 (52.9%). Those who suffer chronic tinnitus often can be accustomed to it, and don't seek for treatment, most of them are attacked by tinnitus suddenly, and many have obvious inducements, such as anxiety, insomnia, overstrain, contact of noises, use of ototoxic drugs etc. In this study, the number of patients who suffer tinnitus all the time (except in sleepiness) is the largest, nearly half of 71(50.7%) visiting patients are suffering persistent tinnitus.According to this study, the sites of tinnitus can be divided into five categories; the left ear with tinnitus is the commonest, which is consistent with reports. One-side tinnitus is more than double-side tinnitus, while the cranial tinnitus is rare. The tunes of tinnitus can be divided into 7 type---low, middle, high-pitched, single, polyphonic, variable and unknown tunes, thereinto, 26 patients suffer low-tuned tinnitus (18.6%), 54 with middle-tuned tinnitus ( 38.6%), 36 with high-pitched tinnitus (25.7%), 3 with single tune tinnitus (2.1%), 20 with variable tune tinnitus (14.3%), 1 with unknown tune tinnitus (0.7%), among which the patients with middle-tuned tinnitus have the largest population. The number of patients with tinnitus of medium loudness is 70 (50.0%), the least is those suffering slight tinnitus with a number of 2 (1.4%). After testing tinnitus loudness withχ2 for tinnitus patients of different genders, p>0.05, the difference makes no statistical significance. Among the 140 patients, 39 (28.9%) of them don't have accompanying symptoms, the other 101(72.1%) have at least one accompanying symptom, the commonest accompanying symptoms are decreasing hearing, stuffiness of ears and dizziness. 62 (44.3%) of them have aggravating factors while 44 (31.4%) have alleviating factors, the common aggravating factors contain such emotional changes like nervousness, anxiety, sadness, and influenza, tiredness and insomnia. The alleviation is often resulted from some rests and treatment, the treatment includes medication, acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen chamber etc. When the patients change emotions, released with a happier mood, the tinnitus will be alleviated. The influence degree of tinnitus can be divided into 4 levels, including 70 (50.0%) patients with light tinnitus, 67 ( 47.9%) with moderate tinnitus, and 3 (2.1%) with heavy tinnitus, in combination of moderate tinnitus and heavy tinnitus, the influence degrees of loudness will be tested withχ2, p<0.0001, the difference makes no statistical significance. The higher of the loudness, the heavier of the influence to patients.The Electric audiometry results show that among the 140 tinnitus patients, 55 (39.3%) patients have normal hearing, 85 (60.7%) have decreasing hearing, 34 (24.3%) have decreasing hearing in both ears. Disregarding patients with cranial tinnitus, the number of the ears with tinnitus is 180, the number of the ears with decreasing hearing is 117 among 140 tinnitus patients. The ears with tinnitus contain ears with normal hearing, while ears with decreasing hearing include that with no tinnitus, the two conditions intersect without inclusions. The total number of patients with tinnitus and decreasing hearing is 101, 2 with cranial tinnitus, 1 with normal hearing in both ears, and 1 with decreasing hearing. The hearing of tinnitus patients at different ages are tested withχ2, p< 0.05, and the difference makes no statistical significance. The number of patients with decreasing hearing of a side ear is increasing with age. The relevant history of tinnitus contains contact history with noises, history of using ototoxic drugs, history of head injuries, history of ear diseases, history of whole body diseases and familial history of tinnitus and deafness. The previous history of diseases and influence degrees to patients are tested withχ2 respectively, p>0.05, the differences make no statistical significance.Conclusions: The tinnitus often occurs in the elders, this issue becomes more and more serious with the coming of aging of the society, and the rate of young patients in the tinnitus patients is obviously increasing in comparison with previous studies. Over half of visiting patients are acute tinnitus patients with a history of less than 3 months, the chronic tinnitus patients often can be accommodated and accustomed to tinnitus, and don't come to hospital for treatment, only when the tinnitus become aggravated, the hearing decreases or the tinnitus influences their life do they seek for treatment. According to this study, the incidence of tinnitus happening in one ear is higher than that in both ears, while the cranial tinnitus is rare. The commonest tinnitus happens in the left ear. The louder of the tinnitus, the bigger of the influence to patients. The consistency is high between the ear side of tinnitus and the ear of decreasing hearing, the number of patients with decreasing hearing of a side ear is rising with ages. The histories of diseases have no effect on loudness of tinnitus.The sample quantities of tinnitus patients and time collected in this study have certain limitations, only a small number of tinnitus patients are tested about tunes and loudness of tinnitus, the information is not complete, it's a pity that these data can not be taken as statistics indicators. All the indicators are subjective evaluations of patients, no objective indicators can be taken as criteria, and the follow-up visit of treatments for all patients are not completed. Given more time and conditions, audiological and imaging examinations, comparisons of audiological and imaging changes for specificities can be carried out, and the lesions of tinnitus can be determined. We are looking forward to making further studies of clinical features of tinnitus patients in the future and with larger sample quantities, and collecting more complete tinnitus information (histories of diseases, physical examinations, auxiliary examinations and treatment, follow-up visit records).
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