The Treatment of Meniere's Disease with Ultrasonic Waves: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

In spite of considerable progress during the last 20 years, the results of the medical treatments of Ménière's disease are still far from being satisfactory. Surgical destruction of the diseased labyrinth is, furthermore, feasible only in the limited number of cases in which in all probability only one labyrinth is affected and in which the hearing on the affected side has permanently fallen below the serviceable level. The numerous cases which do not respond to medical treatment and which, on the other hand, are not suitable for surgery present a very difficult therapeutic problem. A new treatment aiming at selective destruction of the diseased vestibular portion of the labyrinth with ultrasonic waves with preservation of hearing would be ideally suited for these patients. Although attempts at treatment of the ear with ultrasonic waves date back as far as 30 years, the apparatus used at that time by Mülwert and Voss