[Meniere's disease in the elderly].

OBJECTIVE

To focus on the prevalence of rare Meniere's disease in the elderly(> or = 60 yrs) and to investigate its clinical characteristics.

METHOD: To observe the elderly with Meniere's disease from 2004-01-2007-7 and to investigate its clinical manifestation, electrocochleography (ECoG), vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP), caloric test and pure tone audiogram.

RESULT: There were 13 cases of Meniere's disease in the elderly. And the prevalence of Meniere's disease was 2.22% (13/586). The initial symptoms were as following: 2 cases with cochlear and vestibular symptoms, 9 cases with mere cochlear symptoms, 1 cases with mere spinning vertigo and 1 case with mere drop attack. The audiogram in the elderly were varied: low and high frequency hearing loss, flat, and high-frequency hearing loss. And the high frequency hearing loss had no relation with the duration of Meniere's disease. The results of vestibular function were varied. The percentage of positive result of ECoG was 63.6% (7/11, 2 cases not determined).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of Meniere's disease in children was 2.22%. The initial symptoms was cochlear and vestibular symptoms, mere cochlear symptoms, mere spinning vertigo and mere drop attack, respectively. The audiogram showed prominent high frequency hearing loss. The percentage of positive result of ECoG was high. And the results of vestibular function tests were varied.