SURGERY OF THE SYMPATHETIC FOR MENIERE'S DISEASE, TINNITUS, AND NERVE DEAFNESS

Abstract

MÉNIÈRE'S DISEASE MÉNIÈRE'S disease has presented the otologist with one of his major problems not only in attempting to discover the etiological factors of the disease but also in providing treatment which will grant freedom to the patient from the incapacitating attacks of vertigo, with their frequent psychological sequelae, relief from the tinnitus, which is sometimes almost intolerable, and a little hope that the hearing will not deteriorate rapidly, leaving him for the remainder of his life severely handicapped with a perceptive deafness. The magnitude of the problem is more than self-evident. The many variable treatments which have been advocated still leave the undeniable and unattractive fact before us that when all medical treatment has failed, the hearing has deteriorated to a virtually useless level as the cochlea degenerates, and the vestibular disturbances make life a burden to the patient, we can only offer the alternatives of destruction of the