Ménière's disease (MD) is an
inner ear disease characterized by
vertigo,
tinnitus,
hearing loss, and
ear stuffiness. Modern
therapies such as
drugs,
surgery, and vestibular function
rehabilitation have limited effects in relieving the symptoms and reducing the
recurrence.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can alleviate the symptoms of MD with simple operation and mild adverse reactions while emphasizing
psychological adjustment. The TCM
treatment of MD is individualized depending on different stages and pathogenic factors. The internal
treatment mainly targets phlegm, dampness,
water,
wind,
fire,
deficiency, and
blood stasis. External interventions include
acupuncture and
moxibustion. This
paper reviewed the published articles about the
treatment of MD with TCM. In recent five years, the published studies were mainly clinical trials and experience discussion (or
case reports), and few
reports of fundamental
research were published. In these studies, the Western
medicine diagnosis of MD mostly refers to the Diagnostic Basis and
Efficacy Evaluation of
Ménière's Disease (Guiyang, 2006) and the Guidelines for
Diagnosis and
Treatment of
Ménière's Disease (2017), while the TCM
diagnosis mostly refers to the Criteria of
Diagnosis and
Therapeutic Effect of
Diseases and
Syndromes in
Traditional Chinese Medicine issued by the National
Administration of TCM in 1994. The
efficacy was mostly evaluated based on
clinical efficacy,
scales,
syndrome scores, pure tone
audiometry, etc., while caboratory indexes were rarely used. The available clinical studies about the
treatment of MD with TCM generally have low quality of evidence and single intervention means. In the
future, the
research on the
treatment of MD with TCM can be improved by standardizing the
research program, improving the quality of evidence, exploring more intervention
methods, and strengthening
basic research.