Methods, systems, and devices for treating tinnitus with VNS pairing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9204998-B2
Application number	US-201414286220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2014
Priority date	Jul 2, 2008
Publication date	Dec 8, 2015
Grant date	Dec 8, 2015

Abstract

A method of treating tinnitus comprising measuring a patient's hearing, determining the patient's hearing loss and the patient's tinnitus frequency using the measurements of the patient's hearing, programming a clinical controller with the measurements of the patient's hearing, selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones, where the therapeutic tones are selected to be at least a half-octave above or below of the patient's tinnitus frequency, setting an appropriate volume for each of the plurality of tones, repetitively playing each of the plurality of therapeutic tones, and pairing a vagus nerve stimulation pulse train with each playing of a therapeutic tone, thereby reducing the patient's perception of tinnitus.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of treating tinnitus comprising:
determining the patient's tinnitus frequency;
selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones, where the therapeutic tones are selected to be at least a half-octave above or below of the patient's tinnitus frequency;
setting an appropriate volume for each of the plurality of selected therapeutic tones;
repetitively playing each of the selected plurality of therapeutic tones; and
pairing an electrical vagus nerve stimulation pulse train with each playing, thereby reducing the patient's perception of tinnitus.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein respective trains are paired with respective tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones, thereby reducing the patient's perception of tinnitus.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein respective tones of the plurality of therapeutictones are respectively at one discrete tone.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some respective tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are respectively at two or more different tones.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some respective tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are at different tones.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some respective tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are respectively single frequency tones.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is implemented using a tone generator that respectively operates as a tone generator when generating at least some respective tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are at one discrete tone.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are at the same frequency.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting at least one tone corresponding to non-tinnitus frequency tones, wherein the selected at least one tone corresponds to at least one of the plurality of therapeutic tones exposed to the patient.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the action of playing each of the plurality of therapeutic tones includes:
exposing the patient to a respective tone at a volume different from that of another respective tone.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are played at the same volume.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones are played at one or more volumes effective to reduce the patient's perception of tinnitus.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones based on the determined tinnitus frequency.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the patient's hearing loss and the patient's tinnitus frequency.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
setting respective volumes for respective tones of the plurality of therapeutic tones exposed to the patient, wherein the respective tones exposed to the patient are exposed at the respective set volumes.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one of determining a patient's hearing loss or measuring a patient's hearing.

Assignees

• Microtransponder Inc
• Univ Texas

Inventors

• Kilgard Michael P
• Engineer Navzer
• Pierce David Michael

Classifications

• A61N1/0551

  Spinal or peripheral nerve electrodes · CPC title

• A61N1/361

  Phantom sensations, e.g. tinnitus · CPC title

• H04R25/75

  Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception · CPC title

• A61N1/37235

  Aspects of the external programmer · CPC title

• A61N1/36092

  Mental training · CPC title