Efficacy of sound therapy on tinnitus in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.

Abstract

Tinnitus is a highly prevalent and distressing symptom in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL). While international clinical guidelines primarily focus on hearing recovery through pharmacological interventions, effective treatment for tinnitus remains limited. Sound therapy, such as masking and retraining therapy, has emerged as a promising treatment. This systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of sound therapy for the alleviation of tinnitus in adult patients with ISSNHL. Researchers will independently conduct searches for randomised controlled trials in the following databases: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), CNKI and Wanfang Data. The literature search is scheduled for March 2026 without language restrictions. The review will include studies involving adult patients (18 years or older) diagnosed with ISSNHL with tinnitus symptoms who underwent sound therapy (including Tinnitus Masking Therapy, Tinnitus Retraining Therapy or music therapy) with standard drug therapy, placebo or any other non-acoustic interventions compared with the same treatment alone. Researchers will independently screen studies, extract data and assess the risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool. Data analyses will be performed using RevMan V.10.0.2 and Stata V.18.0 software. The certainty of the evidence will be evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. This study relies on the analysis of secondary data from previously published trials; therefore, ethical approval from a research ethics committee is not required. The results of this systematic review will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.<b>PROSPERO registration number</b>CRD420261294173.