Terapia para los acúfenos en Medica 2011

Terapia para los acúfenos en Medica 2011

La feria Medica 2011 trae todas las novedades en terapias y control de la salud.


El tratamiento de los acúfenos o tinnitus, que acosa, según estudios, a uno de cada diez adultos, es uno de los hitos de la feria.

El tinnitus se caracteriza por golpes, zumbidos o tonos agudos que son percibidos por el oído y que pueden llegar a ser muy molestos.

Ahora, un aparato del tamaño de una cajilla de fósforos podría ser la solución para liberarse de esos sonidos.

Esta novedad terapéutica fue galardonada con el “Premio alemán a la Innovación” y es una de las estrellas de las nuevas tecnologías médicas en la feria Medica 2011.

Se trata de un neuroestimulador que los pacientes deben utilizar durante cuatro horas por día.

El aparato –que cuesta unos 2.700 euros- emite estímulos al oído interno, gracias a lo cual el cerebro desaprende la percepción de esos tonos.

Hasta ahora, cerca de un 75 por ciento de los pacientes tratados con dichos aparatos respondieron positivamente al tratamiento, que dura de 6 a 12 meses, señaló Claus Martini, director de la compañía ANM, de Troisdorf, que los fabrica. Sin embargo, un 20 a un 30 por ciento de las personas tratadas no respondió al neuroestimulador.

Autora: CP/ dpa
Editor: José Ospina
Fuente: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15535952,00.html

Comentarios:
ANM Tinnitus Neurostimulator - hopeful news
(09/20/09 3:54 AM)


So I've recently read an account about a participant in the German clinical study with the ANM Neurostimulator (the acoustic stimulator by the Jülich Research Centre, which is kind of like a special mp3-player, so no implant or drug!).

This device creates a special tone adjusted to each person's individual tinnitus. We already had a thread about it, which you can find here.

This is an account by a participant called "Ding" (that's her nickname on a German tinnitus board).

Ding has got tinnitus for 13 years already, caused by an acute acoustic trauma which she got in a car accident (airbag). Last june she also had sudden hearing loss. She can hear the tinnitus al the time and it wakes her up at night.

Her tinnitus rages in the high frequencies and is about 30dB.

She also suffers from hyperacusis in her right ear. However she isn't dizzy or anything like that (no Menières disease). She has never partaken in any clincal study or experimental treatment before and didn't use any special masking device. Her hearing was fine as well besides the sudding hearing loss which occured in June.
When she had that herdoctor said she could take part in the Neurostimulator study, which she did.

Ding's tinnitus loudness varies from time to time, but that's not a problem for this study. A non-tonal tinnitus can cause problems, because you have got to set the tone of the device yourself.

If you don't do this correctly the tones played from the device can be considered uncomfortable or 'false'. She felt like this in her right ear (I guess her tinnitus fluctuates a bit there, but I'm not sure, my German isn't top notch).

She has worn the device for 6 hours a day.

This doesn't have to be one long sitting, but if you use it you've gotta wear it at least 1 hour straight. Whilst wearing the device you can continue your usual daily business (reading, talking, etc.), the only obstruction Ding experienced was that she couldn't use the telephone.

Immediately after usage she noticed that the tinnitus in her left ear changed. After four days she already realized it was improving.

Her right ear improved as well, but a bit less than her lef ear. In the early stage of the study the tones appeared to become less intrusive, but it was still there and at pretty much the same dB-level (for her feeling).

After three months she had to stop the treatment (this was around 10 days ago). The tinnitus in her left ear went away altogether (she stated "away like in really away")!

She still suffers from tinnitus in her right ear but it improved a lot as well. She has hopes that a continuation of the usage of the Neurostimulator will make it even better there as well (but the study has ended so at the moment she can't do that).

Also her hearing improved at lot in her tinnitus frequences (from 10 up to 30dB!). Of course dead hearing cells can't be regenerated this way, but tinnitus can influence hearing if it's loud.

Conclusion; this device sounds very promising.

However this is just one personal account and we have to wait until the full study results are published (which will happen this year).

And it won't work for everyone, considering the nature of tinnitus (it seems to be working for noise-induced tinnitus, but perhaps it won't work for people with stress-induced tinnitus for example, we just don't know yet). But it's a very hopeful nonetheless, seeing that this particular person had tinnitus for 13 years already and it made it go away fully in one ear (and perhaps more stimulation of the right ear and adjustment/refinement of the device can make it go away there as well). I'll keep you guys posted if I hear anything new about it!

P.S. Excuse me if my English is a bit clunky at times, I had to translate this from a German board and I'm not a native English nor German speaker ;)

P.S.2. Ding states the study continues for about three weeks from now on until it is closed for all participants. The results should be published afterwards, my guess is anything from late October until December.