Curious About Nerve Surgery: If It Works for Hands and Feet, Why Not Ears?

[momus]

I live in a senior building, and many of my neighbors suffer from peripheral neuropathy. That made me curious because I'm an older guy and don't have those issues, just a light tingling in my palms from decades of bike and eBike riding.

The Cleveland Clinic website says:

"Surgery (for neuropathy) can help reconnect cut nerves and relieve pain due to trapped nerves. It can also sever or remove damaged or malfunctioning nerves to keep their signals from reaching the brain and vice versa."

It was that last part that caught my attention—the idea that surgeons can sever or remove damaged or malfunctioning nerves to stop their signals from reaching the brain, and the other way around. If they can do that for hands and feet, for example, then why not for ears?

 

[Varda]

There is a member on this forum with tinnitus who had a tumor on their auditory nerve and had to have the nerve cut in order to remove the tumor. According to their post, it did not relieve their tinnitus symptoms.

A Work in Progress: Living with Tinnitus by @Joe P. Tamborra.

I hope Joe can share more about their auditory nerve operation, as I see it mentioned repeatedly on this forum as a possible solution.

The way I understand it, tinnitus originates from permanently excited neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain, so cutting the connection to the cochlea would not help. This also aligns with why some people develop tinnitus after stopping anti-anxiety medication like benzodiazepines. These medications lower brain activity, and the brain responds by developing tolerance and increasing activity to compensate. When someone stops taking the medication, their brain remains in a heightened state of activity, and they may begin to perceive the high neuronal activity in the auditory cortex.

It seems to me that the most promising approach might be to use stereotactic radiosurgery, which is normally used to target tumor cells in the brain, on the auditory cortex. However, I do not think tinnitus has ever been treated with this method.