Effects of Medical Treatment on Meniere's disease

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: In Meniere's disease, medical treatment using diuretics has been the mainstream of management. But the effects of medical treatment are very difficult to evaluate because of many variables. Authors tried to investigate the effects of diuretics on Meniere's disease through the change of symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHOD: From January, 1995 to December, 2000, the twenty patients with definite Meniere's disease who has been followed up over 24 months were retrospectively reviewed. They had no history of previous medication, and were managed with diuretics for the first time. The change of frequency of vertigo, the threshold of pure tone audiometry, type of audiogram were analyzed at each period during 6 month before treatment, during 6 month at 1, 2 and 4 years after treatment. RESULTS: The ratio of sex was 11(male 10, female 10), the average age of diagnosis was 53.9 year old, and the average follow up duration was 39.3 month. By medical treatment, vertigo symptom was significantly controlled in 56.2% at 2 year after treatment. Among 20 patients, 5 patients failed to medical treatment and underwent the sac decompression (N=1) and intratympanic gentamicin injection (N=4). The change of pure tone audiometry was from 34.5 dB before treatment to 38 dB at 24 months and 44.2 dB at 48 months after treatment. The most type of audiometry was flat type and flat type was increased with time. CONCLUSION: In Meniere's disease, the medical treatment controlled significantly the vertigo frequency in 50~60%. But the hearing threshold was aggravated with time after treatment despite of medical treatment.