Effects of tinnitus on postural control and stabilization: a pilot study

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the tinnitus’s impacts on postural control.

Material and methods: Sixty-six subjects (age: 46.71 ± 15.12 years, height 166.32 ± 8.88 cm, weight 64.85 ± 12.57 kg) with idiopathic tinnitus were recruited for the study and were tested. Each subject underwent to ‘Romberg test’, ‘Static balance’ and ‘posture analysis’. Static balance and posture analysis were performed two times, with open and close eyes, and were measured through the FreeMed posturography system.

Results: showed that subjects had worse Baropodometric performances respect to benchmarks; moreover according to literature the results show that these patients had significant differences between open eyes and closed eyes conditions on total length (p <0.0001), on absolute Root Mean Square (p <0.0001), on x Root Mean Square (p <0, 05) and on y Root Mean Square (p <0.0001) confirming that vision signals provide better stability. However this pilot study evidences that tinnitus population had a poor postural
control probably due to tinnitus that is negatively affecting the subject’s postures.

Conclusion: our results seem to confirm that tinnitus, as negatively influences auditory perception, also could damage balance.
Further studies are necessary to confirm this pilot.