1991-06-06
1992-12-01
Hindenburg, Max
Surgery
Truss
Pad
128789, A61B 500
Patent
active
051672367
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention refers to a tinnitus-masker with an electronic circuit arranged in a housing, an earphone to produce a spectrum of sound in order to mask the tinnitus of the patient and with a volume control to adjust the sound intensity.
Tinnitus defines a disease in which the patient notices noise in his ears or his head for which no external sources can be traced. This can be extremely annoying and possibly leads in difficult cases to severe psychic and physiological symptoms.
Scientific literature shows, that since many years research efforts have been made to cure tinnitus disease by masking the tinnitus noise by means of sound signals lead to the ears. Numerous investigations have been carried out by M. Feldmann, who tested the influence of wide band noises, small band noises and pure tones. The following publications are to be pointed out:
H. Feldmann: "Homolaterale und kontralaterale Verdeckung von subjektiven Ohrgerauschen durch Breitbandgerausche, Schmalbandgerausche und reine Tone"; Arch. klin. exp. Ohr.-Nas.-Kehlk.-Heilk. 194, 460-465 (1969).
H. Feldmann: "Homolateral and contralateral masking of tinnitus by noise--bands and pure tones"; Audiology, 10, 138-144 (1971).
H. Feldmann: "Homolateral and contralateral masking of tinnitus, Proceedings of the 1st International Tinnitus Seminar"; J. Laryngol. Otol. Suppl. 4, S.60-70 (1981).
In order to provide patients with a means to ease the problems of their disease, even outside of their homes and independently of big and complicated appliances, miniaturized tinnitus - maskers have recently been made available. These are either individual appliances or they are integrated into hearing aids. Another proposal is a signal transmitter which can be fixed to a conventional hearing aid (DE-A-3027791).
In case of these appliances, special care is taken that the masking noise has a wider bandwidth than the noise in the ears it is supposed to mask (R. Schonweiler: "Ohrgerausche: Ursachen, Bewertung und Therapie"; Dtsch. med. Wschr. 111, 1489-1494, insbesondere 1492 linke Spalte, (1986)). Known tinnitus maskers therefore use a noise signal which has a wide, indifferent frequency spectrum, extending over the whole audible spectrum of sound, normally possessing a wide maximum between approximately 1000 Hz and 5000 Hz. The exact profile of the sound spectrum is defined by the individual supplier of the appliance. Generally the patient can only regulate the volume by means of a respective control knob. Only a few appliances provide the possibility to influence frequency response through sound control. The effect of these sound controls is to either preemphasize or lower certain parts of the frequency spectrum (especially deeper tones).
From SE-B-428 860 and GB-A-2 134 689 tinnitus-maskers are known in which the frequency spectrum of the masking sound can be modified to a major degree. To this end SE-B 428 860 discloses a programming unit which is separable from the signal generating unit and which serves for inputing information with respect to the desired noise spectrum. This information is transferred from case to case (batchwise) to a memory integrated into the signal generation unit. This allows generation of relatively complicated noise spectra in accordance with the information stored in the memory. Direct adjustment by the patient himself is not possible. Furthermore the device requires a high expenditure in electronics. Digital programming is also used in the system of GB-A 2 134 689. Here a separate characterizing system is required. A specialist is supposed to determine the noise spectrum suited for an individual patient by means of this characterizing system. The masker is programmed accordingly. Again this digital operating system requires a high design expenditure. No adjustment by the patient himself is possible.
The invention is directed to providing a tinnitus-masker with improved efficiency. Simultaneously the expenditure for electronics should be as limited as possible to allow optimal miniaturization.
This is achieved by a tinnitus-masker as speci
REFERENCES:
patent: 4222393 (1980-09-01), Hocks et al.
patent: 4759070 (1988-07-01), Voroba et al.
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