The neurosurgeon

Abstract

Keypoints: 1. Neurosurgeons can contribute in a similar fashion to treatments of tinnitus as they currently do in pain treatment. 2. Neurosurgeons should collaborate with other clinicians and basic neuroscientists to help elucidate the pathophysiology of tinnitus. 3. Invasive neuromodulation can be helpful in selected forms of intractable tinnitus. 4. Different intracranial pathologies exist that can cause tinnitus amenable to surgical treatment, both of the non-pulsatile and of the pulsatile type. 5. Non-pulsatile tinnitus can be considered analogous to pain and results from changes in neural networks of the brain. 6. Pulsatile tinnitus is mostly related to anomalies of blood vessels in and around the brain. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.