An osteopathic approach to occipital neuralgia and tinnitus

Eye pain and ringing in the ear are non-specific symptoms commonly evaluated by primary care physicians and specialists alike. The differential diagnosis for these symptoms is broad and includes musculoskeletal, ophthalmologic and neurologic considerations. Careful consideration of the differential diagnosis should include acute, potentially life-threatening pathologies such as glaucoma or intracranial masses, as well as common pathologies, including cervicalgia, headache variants (migraine, tension) and acoustic neuroma. This report describes a patient with eye pain caused by occipital neuralgia and tinnitus. Correcting the somatic dysfunctions found in the head, cervical, thoracic and rib regions with osteopathic manipulative treatment resolved the occipital neuralgia and the tinnitus for this patient. Thus, osteopathic manipulative treatment should be considered for conservative management of occipital neuralgia and tinnitus.