| Ménière's disease is a progressive disorder of the inner ear consisting of a quadrad of symptoms: (1) fluctuating hearing loss, (2) aural fullness or pressure (3) roaring tinnitus, and (4) episodic vertigo. The etiology of Ménière's disease is not known, but its pathophysiology is believed to be due to endolymphatic hydrops, or excessive endolymph pressure in the inner ear.; If some disease is found that is believed to have precipitated the Ménière's disease, a physician will attempt to manage the symptoms medically, with low salt diet, diuretic, and avoidance of caffeine and nicotine. However, in many cases the disease will continue to progress, uncontrolled by medical intervention. These cases will require some form of surgical intervention to alleviate the debilitating symptoms associated with Ménière's disease.; In the past, 3 main surgical alternatives have been considered as options to alleviate Ménière's disease symptoms: (1) endolymphatic sac decompression, (2) surgical vestibular neurectomy, and (3) labyrinthectomy. However, more recently, a less invasive medical/surgical treatment has been introduced. Intratympanic chemical vestibular neurectomy involves injecting an aminoglycoside through the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, and into the middle ear space where it perfuses through the round window membrane and into the inner ear spaces in order to destroy diseased nerve cells and alleviate symptoms associated with these nerve cells.; This study seeks to analyze the effect of Streptomycin chemical vestibular neurectomy on subjects' daily functional levels, or the extent to which they are debilitated by the disease, and hearing acuity (pure tone and word discrimination scores) at three points in time: (1) pre-treatment, (2) 2 months post-treatment, and (3) 18 months or longer post-treatment.; Results indicate that there is a statistically significant improvement in functional level immediately post-treatment (2 months) compared to pre-treatment, which sustains over a given period of time (18 months or longer post-treatment). Results also indicate that there is no statistically significant change in hearing acuity, pure tone or word discrimination score, immediately post-treatment (2 months) or over time (18 months or longer). Finally, subjects whose functional levels improved showed no significant change in hearing acuity over time. |
