The effect on tinnitus in 110 patients undergoing translabyrinthine vestibular nerve section is presented. The effect on tinnitus of vestibular and cochlear nerve section (VCNS) together and vestibular nerve section (VNS) alone was studied. The number of patients improved with VCNS (61 per cent) was slightly better than with VNS alone (49 per cent). VNS alone worsened tinnitus more often than VCNS. Age, side involved, sex, etiology of vertigo, severity of tinnitus, interference with sleep and activities, slope of the pre-operative audiogram, and magnitude of the hearing loss had no value in predicting the change in tinnitus following either VNS or VCNS.

This study attempts to correlate the relationship between clinical otosclerosis, tinnitus, and stapedectomy surgery. One hundred and thirty-five patients who recently underwent stapedectomy surgery were evaluated to determine the effects upon tinnitus and to determine if there was an association between tinnitus and the pre-operative cochlear reserve, the degree of footplate pathology, and/or the post-operative hearing result.

Diminished cochlear reserve and the post-operative audiometric result had no relationship to the tinnitus symptom. A beneficial effect on tinnitus occurred in 25 per cent of the patients requiring drilling of the stapes footplate.

One hundred and seventy-two patients with Menière's disease (including tinnitus) who underwent endolymphatic system (ELS) surgery for vertigo and/or hearing loss, were evaluated to determine whether ELS surgery had an incidental effect on tinnitus. Tinnitus was eliminated in 34 patients (19.9 per cent), reduced in 64 patients (37.2 per cent), unchanged in 39 patients (22.6 per cent), and worse in 35 patients (20.3 per cent). No significant correlation existed between surgical results for hearing and an improvement in tinnitus. A successful elimination of vertigo, however, was associated with better results for tinnitus relief. Tinnitus is not considered to be an indication for ELS surgery.

Otologic surgeons have long searched for a predictable surgical procedure for the control of tinnitus, but without success. Yet periodically, surgical procedures employed primarily for other purposes serendipitously produce relief of associated tinnitus. An effort will be made to study this aspect of tinnitus. The recent literature on the subject will be surveyed briefly. The effect upon tinnitus in 332 patients by the use of various neurotologic surgical procedures, performed primarily for other purposes, will be presented and discussed.