Pulsatile Tinnitus following Aortic Valve replacement.

[Minousdad]

I am making a good recovery following surgery in early March 2024 to replace my Aortic Valve. I am experiencing a constant thumping sound in sync with my heart beat and felt between my ears somewhere in the back of my neck. Anyone might experience this after strenuous exercise as the blood is rushing along the carotid artery. However I experience this all the time including at rest. Background noise during the day helps distract the feeling but if i wake up on the middle of the night it is most disturbing and I have to have the radio on quietly to help me back to sleep.

My valve was a tissue one and thus not necessarily associated with noise. I have spoken with my GP, with a cardiac nurse and with Tinnitus.org. Symptoms are similar to Pulsatile Tinnitus but but there is no agreement as to the cause or treatment. Is it an ENT matter, a cardiac matter or neurological ?

Please reply if you have any theories and especially if you have experienced anything like this.

I have an Echocardiogram booked for next month.

Graham b

[NotanAstronaut]

if you had some left ventricular hypertrophy (thickening) prior to your surgery then the heart still has all that muscle working but against no resistance now, so there is a forceful shockwave going up your carotids with each heart beat. I was told I might get this though haven’t experienced it

In time I think the heart will remodel, loose its excess power and the thumping you feel/hear will lessen. It will take 6months + I would think. Possibly it will be faster if you are on ramipril.

I’m not a cardiologist or a heart surgeon but a retired GP, so I may be wrong!

I would ask to speak to one of these, via their secretary, on the phone or talk to a cardiac nurse at your local hospital if it is limiting your activities or worrying you.

[Minousdad in reply to NotanAstronaut]

Thank you for that reply. I found it most plausible as a possible explanation as to what I am experiencing. It was also encouraging to think that the heart can remodel and that any LV hypertrophy, which undoubtedly must have occurred in all that waiting for surgery, could correct itself.

I am expecting a telephone consultation with my surgeon (or a cardiac nurse) on 15th October so I will be able to discuss my symptoms then.

I should say that I also have some more ‘classic’ tinnitus of the white noise type. There is some research linking LV trouble with tinnitus so I am hoping that both types will improve with time.

Thanks again for your help now and earlier this year.

Minousdad

[NotanAstronaut in reply to Minousdad]

Good stuff. Apologies for the typos in my reply. Did it on my phone and didn’t read through it carefully enough! Let me know what they say if you feel you can. Tinnitus itself can be very hard to stop. I get it intermittently and probably because of too much loud music over the decades. Mine is worse with colds. I’ve been known to hunt round the house late at night for the humming that’s in my head! Fortunately, kinda, my prosthetic valve distracts somewhat from the tinnitus and if that ever stops…. In truth, after a year I don’t notice that too much.

Hope yours settles with time.

[NotanAstronaut]

How is it going?