Meniere's disease and middle ear pressure: vestibular function after transtympanic tube placement.
CONCLUSIONS
Selected patients with Meniere's disease (MD) show an improvement of disability from vertigo after transtympanic ventilation tube insertion, although an effect on vestibular function is not seen if ipsilateral middle ear pressure lower than -50 daPa is used as a selection criterion.


OBJECTIVE
Transtympanic ventilation tube insertion as a treatment option for MD has been reported but its results have been controversial. So far, no investigations on vestibular function in patients with MD after tube insertion have been carried out.


METHODS
Twenty-two patients with unilateral MD who were intractable to medical treatment and who had an ipsilateral middle ear pressure lower than -50 daPa received a transtympanic ventilation tube. Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) and sinusoidal harmonic acceleration (SHA) testing were recorded pre- and postoperatively and were compared.


RESULTS
Most patients (68.2%) reported an improvement of vertigo. Before surgery 63.6% of patients did not show VEMPs, whereas vestibulo-collic reflexes were measured in 36.4% of all cases compared with 68.2% of patients without and 31.8% with recorded VEMPs after surgery. No statistically different findings in gain and phase lag of SHA testing were seen postoperatively compared to preoperative findings.
Park
Jonas Jae-Hyun
JJ
Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, RWTH University Aachen, Aachen, Germany. jpark@ukaachen.de
Chen
Yue-Shih
YS
Westhofen
Martin
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004432:Ear, Middle / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008575:Meniere Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008876:Middle Ear Ventilation; D011312:Pressure; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014717:Vertigo / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests