title: Meniere's disease and middle ear pressure: vestibular function after transtympanic tube placement.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, RWTH University Aachen, Aachen, Germany. jpark@ukaachen.de
authors.forename: Jonas Jae-Hyun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Yue-Shih
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westhofen
mesh_terms: 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