Any ENT specialists in the house

[audidoody]

Brother in law has developed bad Tinnitus and went to local GP who told him it might be an acoustic neuroma tumour (without doing any proper diagnosis). He's now stting himself and thinks he is going to die. He has to wait until September to see an NHS specialist and says the anxiety attacks are more than he can bear. I'm thinking the GP's conduct is bordering on malpractice as she had no business saying anything to him until an MRI scan or specialist had had a look.

From my own Googling I reckon he has an inner ear infection. He has no tumour symptoms (e.g. headaches, paralysis, drooping facial nerves etc). Just bad tinnitus which could be just the blood pumping in his head.

All ideas and amateur diagnosis gratefully received.

[Revisitph]

As you will have seen from the web, acoustic neuromas are benign tumours. Removal may be tricky but death from acoustic neuroma is very very rare. Are you sure the GP didn't say that she would get an MRI and explained that one reason was to be sure it wasn't an acoustic neuroma? A subtle difference but an important one, and a different interpretation of her action would be that she was being careful in her assessment of tinnitus and also trying to keep him fully informed by explaining all the reasons why she wanted a scan. Of course he may, understandably have remembered the ?tumour reason and not the rest of the consult! Of the causes of tinnitus (if that was the only symptom) an acoustic neuroma is well down the list and so highly unlikely.

[The_Doc]

a cancer referral is usually a two week maximum wait from GP to specialist, so you could cheer him up with this bit of knowledge

as has been previously mentioned, I find any consultation where I even (correctly) mention the T word or the C word, the patient goes away thinking one thing and one thing only.

The human mind is a lonely and scary place

[Driller]

OP I started to get bad tinnitus in both ears a few years ago and my ENT sent me immediately to have an MRI to rule out the possibility of acoustic neuroma. It's probably not that (mine is from playing in rock bands) but best to be on the same side early on.

ETA @ The Doc, what is the "T" word?

[ucb]

Tumour

[griffchris]

Even if you look purely at MRI referrals from ENT surgeons for ?acoustic neuroma,(they should be better at detecting these than GPs), only 1 to 1.5% of patients will have an acoustic neuroma. Of that 1 to 1.5%, the vast majority will just be followed up with yearly scans and will never require treatment.