Ménière’s syndrome is a disease of the inner ear in which there is an increase in endolymphatic fluid due to an unknown cause.
Vertigo and Ménière’s Syndrome
The symptoms it causes are hearing loss and noises in the ear or tinnitus, sensation of pressure and episodic rotatory vertigo.
The vertigos that it produces usually last between 20 minutes and 12 hours, and are usually preceded by some symptom that announces it (in most cases it is a sensation of pressure in the ear or worsening of the tinnitus).
These crises are accompanied by a worsening of hearing that usually improves, although with the passage of time this recovery tends to be less. Hearing loss increases with each attack of vertigo.
Treatment of Ménière’s disease
Méniére’s disease can be controlled acceptably well with medical treatment in 85% of the cases. In addition to pharmacological treatment, it is advisable to follow a low salt diet and improve eating habits, as well as to control anxiety states.
A 15% of patients who do not respond adequately to medical treatment can be treated with intratympanic medication with corticosteroids or gentamicin introduced into the inner ear through the eardrum previously locally anesthetized. If this treatment fails, surgical treatment is indicated.
Surgery obtains the best short and long term results, but should only be done in cases where the disease leads to severe social or occupational disability; it may be hearing-conserving or non-hearing-conserving.