Laser therapy would be the most effective treatment for tinnitus, according to a new Brazilian study.
- Some 750 million people suffer from tinnitus worldwide.
- Researchers compared several treatments for this chronic hearing disorder: they concluded that the most effective were laser acupuncture and low-power transmeatal laser stimulation.
- They argue that laser therapies for tinnitus promote peripheral blood flow, inner ear cell proliferation and collagen production.
Tinnitus is a common condition that affects approximately 750 million people worldwide. When these ringing or ringing in the ears are chronic, they can be particularly difficult to cure. There are several treatment options for tinnitus. After comparing them, researchers from the Optics and Photonics Research Center in São Paulo believe that laser therapy is the most effective treatment.
Laser therapy: the most effective method against tinnitus according to the study
For this study published in the journal Journal of Personalized Medicine, the scientists brought together more than 100 patients with chronic idiopathic (no apparent cause) tinnitus, aged 18 to 65. They randomly divided them into ten groups. Each of them followed a type of treatment: laser acupuncture, flunarizine dihydrochloride, Ginkgo biloba (a medicinal plant) or even low-intensity laser stimulation of the internal auditory canal (alone or associated with vacuotherapy, ultrasound, G. biloba or flunarizine dihydrochloride).
After 4 weeks of treatment, the best results were observed in patients treated with laser acupuncture alone or with low-power laser stimulation alone. In the latter case, the tinnitus improved even more when the irradiation time was increased from 6 minutes to 15 minutes.
“Positive effects include anti-inflammatory action and relaxation. We believe that laser therapy may increase peripheral blood flow, which may be the main cause of the problem in many cases, as well as stimulate cell proliferation of the inner ear and the production of collagen”says Vitor Hugo Panhóca, researcher at CEPOF, in a statement published on June 21, 2023.
Tinnitus: the long-term effects of laser therapy need to be checked
For the researchers, their work paves the way for the creation of a possible laser therapy protocol for tinnitus. Health professionals could thus use this treatment more effectively to relieve symptoms in patients suffering from this refractory disorder.
“Understanding how effective therapies work will help us focus on the most productive approaches in future studies. It’s part of the learning curve when you’re innovating health treatments like this,” says Vitor Hugo Panhóca.
However, the scientist warns that studies on the long-term effects of laser therapy are necessary before the general implementation of a treatment protocol.