Experience with a medicolegal decision-making system for occupational hearing loss-related tinnitus.

Owing to an increasing number of requests for compensation, a medicolegal decision-making system for tinnitus related to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has been elaborated at the Federal Belgian Institute of Occupational Diseases. Experience with 113 patients, all of them claiming compensation for NIHL and tinnitus, is now available. The patients underwent an exhaustive audiological investigation, and their professional career and noise exposure were carefully and objectively documented.