Intracranial Pressure

[Ricky81]

Hi Dr. Nagler,

I had asked you about intracranial Pressure and Tinnitus few months ago.
My Neurologist recommended getting a Lumbar Puncture and I got a Lumbar Puncture done on Nov 26th.
While Lumbar Puncture helped relieve the pressure in my head because the pressure was 33.5 mmHg and they brought it down to 13mm HG. Normal pressure is 10-15 for a normal adult.

However, Lumbar Puncture has not resolved my Tinnitus. Do you think my T will resolve anytime soon? While T doesn't bother me anymore and its not that loud, its still there. I sleep on my own too without any medication.



Here is a previous thread with my MRI results.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/could-intracranial-pressure-cause-tinnitus.6269/

 

[Dr. Nagler]

@Ricky81 -

Thank you for your question.

I would tend to look at it as two unrelated problems. They might be related, but since there is no way of knowing for sure, consider them to be unrelated for now.

Increased intracranial pressure is potentially a very serious problem. I am glad that you have had yours addressed, but the reason why your ICP was increased and the role your head injury played in it all is not exactly clear from your postings. You should follow-up in this regard with your neurologist. And you will want him or her to insure that your ICP remains within acceptable limits.

Now, like I said in my previous response to you, "My suggestion would be to see a neurologist about effectively addressing your elevated intracranial pressure and consider any resultant tinnitus improvement (if any) to be a bonus." So in your case, the tinnitus did not improve appreciably. This tells me that it is quite possible that your tinnitus and your elevated ICP have no direct relationship to one another. Is your tinnitus related to your head trauma? I do not know the timing of the onset of your tinnitus with respect to the traumatic event. But either way, the brain has a remarkable ability to compensate. Since your tinnitus is not particularly loud and doesn't bother you any more, I would suggest doing absolutely nothing and just giving it time. There are millions of folks in the US (48 million, in fact) who have tinnitus that is not particularly loud and does not bother them. Most lead full and productive lives. I would focus on the quality of your life and not allow your tinnitus to command any more attention than it deserves, which is to say none at all.

All the best -

Dr. Stephen Nagler