Meniere's Disease Treatment Symptom Syndrome

Meniere's Disease

Ménière's disease is one of the most common causes of dizziness originating in the inner ear. In most cases only one ear is involved, but both ears may be affected in about 15 percent of patients. Ménière's disease typically starts between the ages of 20 and 50 years. Men and women are affected in equal numbers.

 Meniere's Disease Treatment Symptoms Central Carolina ENT Sanford North Carolina Central ENT doctor specialist in Meniere's Disease treatments NC

The symptoms are episodic rotational vertigo (attacks of a spinning sensation), hearing loss, tinnitus (a roaring, buzzing, or ringing sound in the ear), and a sensation of fullness in the affected ear.

Loud sounds may be uncomfortable and seem distorted in the affected ear. From all the Ménière's disease's symptoms, vertigo is usually the most troublesome. Vertigo may last for 20 minutes to two hours or longer. During attacks, patients are usually unable to perform activities normal to their work or home life. Sleepiness may follow for several hours, and the off-balance sensation may last for days. The symptoms of Ménière's disease may be only a minor nuisance, or can become disabling, especially if the attacks of vertigo are severe, frequent, and occur without warning.

CCENT physician will take the history of the frequency, duration, severity, and the character of your attacks, the duration of hearing loss or whether it has been changing. When the history has been completed, diagnostic test will check your hearing and balance functions.

 

 

Ménière's disease treatments may include the following

  • An audiometric examination (hearing test) typically indicates a sensory type of hearing loss in the affected ear. Speech discrimination (the patient's ability to distinguish between words like "sit" and "fit") is often diminished in the affected ear.

  • A VNG (video-nystagmography) may be performed to evaluate balance function. In a darkened room, goggles equipped with a video camera are placed on your eyes. Warm and cool water are gently introduced into each ear canal through a small balloon. Since the eyes and ears work in coordination through the nervous system, measurement of eye movements can be used to test the balance system. Information obtained through the test often times helps the doctor treat your balance disorder.

  • Rotational testing or balance platform , may also be performed to evaluate the balance system.

  • Electrocochleography (ECoG) may indicate increased inner ear fluid pressure in some cases of Ménière's disease.

  • The auditory brain stem response (ABR) , a computerized test of the hearing nerves and brain pathways, computed tomography (CT) or, magnetic

  • Resonance imaging (MRI) may be needed to rule out a tumor occurring on the hearing and balance nerve. Such tumors are rare, but they can cause symptoms similar to Ménière's disease.

Please contact our offices to determine if any of these treatments are right for you.

Central North Carolina ENT Ear Nose & Throat SpecialistRelated Newsletter Article - Meniere's Disease April 2007

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