Meniere's Disease: Understanding This Inner Ear Condition
Learn about Meniere's disease symptoms, causes, and treatment options including diet modifications, medications, and steroid perfusion therapy.
Meniere's disease refers to a condition typically manifested by severe dizziness with vertigo, roaring or ringing tinnitus, fluctuating hearing loss, and a sense of ear pressure or fullness that is sometimes painful.
Meniere's can occur bilaterally in 25% of patients. It is more common in adults in their 40s and 50s. There are about 600,000 people in the United States that have a diagnosis of Meniere's disease. About 50,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.
Causes and Symptoms
Meniere's disease is caused by excess fluid within the inner ear or the labyrinth. The membranous portion of the labyrinth contains endolymph which is responsible for sending balance and hearing signals to the brain.
Abnormal endolymph build-up will interfere with this function. The disease can be familial. It can also occur secondary to allergies, viral infections, autoimmune disease, post trauma, and vascular disease.
Dizziness may occur suddenly following an aura of roaring tinnitus and muffled hearing. Sometimes the dizziness is severe enough that patients are unable to ambulate.
Treatment Options
- Reduced salt and caffeine intake. Typically a diet with less than 2000 mg of salt a day is recommended.
- Diuretics are also helpful by reducing the amount of fluid build-up within the inner ear.
- The acute bouts of Meniere's disease with frank vertigo, nausea, and vomiting are treated symptomatically with Meclizine, Valium, Phenergan, etc.
- Patients who remain symptomatic despite medical treatment are sometimes good candidates for steroid perfusion of the inner ear.