Tinnitus is defined as the perception of sounds without physical or external acoustic sources. Treatment methods for tinnitus include psychological and pharmacological therapy; some have disturbing side effects. Acupuncture is another treatment method with minimal adverse effects to return to a homeostatic state....
No actionable change; a single case report cannot establish efficacy of acupuncture for tinnitus—audiologists should not alter practice based on this evidence alone.
While acupuncture for tinnitus remains controversial and evidence is largely anecdotal, case reports like this can generate hypotheses for future controlled trials in an area of high unmet patient need.
- 01Single-needle-through-multiple-points acupuncture targeting TE21, SI19, GB2, and GB3 acupoints is described for tinnitus.
- 02This is a case report (N=1), the lowest level of clinical evidence.
- 03Reported clinical outcomes are subjective and uncontrolled.
- 04Acupuncture for tinnitus lacks robust evidence from RCTs.
- 05The technique is novel in its specific multi-point single-needle approach, but clinical significance is unknown.
Acupuncture using the single-needle-through-multiple-points technique targeting TE21, SI19, GB2, and GB3 produced clinical improvement in a patient with tinnitus.
studyunsupported- PMID
- 42131847
- DOI
- 10.1177/19336586251363176.
- Journal
- The Hearing Journal
- Publication type
- case_report
- Evidence level
- 4
- Sample size
- 1
- Population
- Single patient with tinnitus
- Intervention
- Acupuncture using single-needle-through-multiple-points technique targeting TE21, SI19, GB2, and GB3 acupoints
Primary outcomes
Clinical outcomes of tinnitus following acupuncture treatment