“…There is reason to believe that pulsatile tinnitus can occur on a nonacoustic basis, because there have been several reports that neurovascular decompression of the VIII nerve can abolish pulsatile tinnitus (Lesinski, Chambers, Komray, Keiser, & Khodadad, 1979;Ohashi, Yasumura, Nakagawa, Mizukoshi, & Kuze, 1992;Ryu, Yamamoto, Sugiyama, Uemura, & Nozue, 1998). For example, in patients with hemifacial spasm and ipsilateral pulsatile tinnitus, Ryu et al (1998) reported that the pulsatile tinnitus could be abolished with repositioning of a blood vessel compressing the auditory nerve. We conclude that it is likely that all cases of pulsatile tinnitus are not due to somatosounds, but rather, some may have another mechanism, probably neural, such as compression of the auditory nerve by a blood vessel.…”