Background:
Øreblue® is a new treatment method for tinnitus and hyperacusis combining auditive rehabilitation and psychological therapy. The present monocentric observational retrospective study was to assess patient’s judgements of its effectiveness.

Material and methods:
From January 2011 to June 2015, 74 consecutive healthy patients (male/female, 51/23; median age, 51.5 years) with chronic tinnitus (without hyperacusis, 32) or hyperacusis (with tinnitus, 42) were treated according to priority at the Hearing Institute of Resources (La Rochelle, France). They were asked to rank their discomfort, quality of life, and sleep quality before and 1 month after treatment using 10-point scales ranging from 0 (no discomfort, poor quality of life, or poor sleep quality) to 10 (unbearable discomfort, best quality of life, or best sleep quality) and their global impression of change on a 10-point scale ranging from 0% (not improved) to 100% (fully improved). These data which were reported in patient medical files were retrospectively analysed in 2018.

Results:
Discomfort, which was severe at inclusion (8.9±0.8), drastically decreased after treatment (change: 8.5±1.3). Quality of life and sleep improved (from 2.2±1.4 and 2.0±1.9 to 8.3±1.4 and 4.9±2.1, respectively). 81.3% of the patients with tinnitus and 100% of patients with hyperacusis claimed to be fully improved. No adverse events were reported during the study.

Conclusions:
The Øreblue® method was effective on discomfort related to tinnitus or hyperacusis; it greatly improved quality of life and sleep. Further studies, especially multicentric or randomised, possibly with imaging and long-term follow-up, should be performed to strengthen these encouraging findings.