Pulsatile tinnitus: treatment with clonazepam and propranolol

Abstract

Pulsatile tinnitus synchronous with heartbeat is rare and normally has vascular origin: arterial (malformation, arterial anatomical variation) or venous (aberrant jugular bulb, glomus tumors, tympanic glomus tumor). Early etiology identification is essential for appropriate treatment to be established. Magnetic angioresonance makes the vascular identification possible and precise. We report a case of arterial anatomical variation in which the treatment was propranolol and clonazepam, showing tinnitus improvement.

Tinnitus treatment: Are drugs effective?

“…The highly addictive nature of alprazolam severely limits its clinical use and it is normally limited to treatment of tinnitus in the very elderly. Clonazepam is commonly used against tinnitus but there have been no large-scale blinded and placebo-controlled studies on it (62). It also shares the adverse effects of alprazolam by being highly addictive and showing accumulation at higher doses.…”