Surgery for intractable vertigo: Chiang Mai experience.

ABSTRACT

If medical therapy fails (6-12 months or more), careful consideration of surgical therapy should be followed with; the patient's hearing, severity of symptoms, age, and occupation. Cochleosacculotomy is reserved for elderly Meniere's patients with poor health, poor hearing and good vestibular function. Endolymphatic sac shunt should be considered as the first procedure for disabled Meniere's patients with aidable hearing and may also be used in those patients with bilateral Meniere's disease. Retrolabyrinthine vestibular nerve section (RLVNS) is indicated for patients with disabling vertigo and normal or aidable hearing. It could be done for all peripheral vertigo and for failed endolymphatic sac procedure. A destructive procedure, such as labyrinthectomy, should be a procedure of choice in a patient who presents with peripheral incapacitating vertigo and nonserviceable hearing loss in the solely affected ear. Again, patients with failed cochleosacculotomy, endolymphatic shunt then go on to receive either labyrinthectomy or RLVNS, based on residual hearing. To obtain a satisfactory surgical result, the surgeon must be precise in selecting the patient with the right disease at the right time.