Introduction

Abstract

Keypoints: 1. Tinnitus is not a single clinical or pathophysiologic entity. There are many forms of tinnitus that differ in their pathophysiology. 2. Exact diagnosis is required in each patient in order to provide the best management of tinnitus. 3. It is especially important to identify those patients who can be treated by specific interventions and those in which tinnitus is a symptom of a severe underlying disease and those patients who require immediate therapeutic action. 4. Exact diagnosis is also of great importance in clinical trials. 5. In the future, new methods such as functional neuroimaging may be found to have additional diagnostic value. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.