Unrecognized infantile Meniere's disease.
We have described two patients who, from early infancy, suffered attacks of vomiting associated with fluctuating hearing loss, which ended in bilateral severe sensorineural hearing loss. The patients were treated by pediatricians as suffering from gastroenteritis or meningitis. Meniere's disease was not suspected. We want to point out that Meniere's disease, though it usually begins in middle age, may well start in childhood, as well as in infancy, and should be suspected whenever vomiting without diarrhea is associated with some hearing loss at any age--no matter how young the patient is. It is also quite possible that some sensorineural hearing losses in late childhood or adulthood are in effect the result of early burnt-out Meniere disease, as in our second case.
D003638:Deafness / Q000209:etiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000175:diagnosis; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008575:Meniere Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008581:Meningitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D014839:Vomiting / Q000209:etiology