Results of conservative treatment of Ménière's disease and prediction of therapeutic effectiveness

Abstract

This study evaluates the effect of conservative treatment of Meniere's disease and the signs which can be used to predict the effectiveness of the treatment in 60 patients with Meniere's disease.Subjects are 60 Meniere's patients treated conservatively.1) Treatment for vertiginous attacks.Effectiveness for treatment were evaluated by complaints of vertigo and spontaneous nystagmus.Sedatives were effective for aborting the attacks.2) Treatment for inner ear dysfunction.Inner ear dysfunction was evaluated by hearing and equilibrium tests. Hearing tests showed an improvement rate of 38%. In equilibrium tests, improvement rate was 71% for the caloric test, 80% for the standing test, 63% for the writing test and 71% for the stepping test.3) Treatment for recurrent attacks.Recurrent attacks of vertigo responded well to treatment in 18 of 26 patients (69 %) according to the criteria of the AAOO (American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, 1972) and in 12 of 20 patients (60%) according to the criteria of the AAO-HNS (American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, 1985).4) Prediction of therapeutic effectiveness for recur-rent attacks.The effectiveness was analyzed by Hayashi's quantification method II. Good response and poor response groups could be differentiated clearly. a) The correlation ratio was 0.4180 (AAOO criteria) and 0.6219 (AAO-HNS criteria). b) The duration of the disease and the caloric CP were the principal items for discriminating between the two groups. c) The success rate for this discrimination was 77% (AAOO criteria) and 85% (AAO-HNS criteria).