Traditional & Alternative Medicine

Biography

Biography: Chun-En Kuo

Abstract

Objective: We sought to investigate the effect of acupuncture treatment on tinnitus. Design: Retrospectively observational analysis of clinical practice. Setting: Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Subjects: Patients who reported tinnitus as their primary complaint at their first visit within a 27-month consecutive period (March 2010 to June 2012) were recruited into the study. The number of cases during the study period determined the sample size. Thirty-nine patients met the eligibility criteria. Ten consecutive patients were collected from otolaryngology department for control. Total forty-nine patients enrolled for the study. Interventions: Patients received acupuncture treatment by using single unilateral acupoint Tīng-gōng (SI19). Outcome measures: Questionnaires including the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) and tinnitus severity index (TSI) were recorded, those applied before and after the acupuncture treatment for recognizing the patients situation practically. Any use of remedies and Chinese herbal medicines was recorded. Results: The reduction of THI score was statistically significant from the baseline to the end of the treatment. The observed reduction score was more consistent between women aged 41 to 60 years. Acupuncture treatment seemed to improve the sleep quality of patients. No adverse reactions or complications were encountered resulting from the acupuncture procedure but sourness complaints occasionally. Conclusions: We observed that acupuncture therapy might improve the general well-being and relieve sleep disturbance associated tinnitus. No subjective hearing acuity improvement was observed in laboratory data as possibly small sample size. We suggest that further studies to explore the efficacy of acupuncture therapy in relieving of sleep disturbance associated tinnitus are merited.