Surgical treatment of Meniere's disease.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review comprises new insights from and discusses the impact of recent medical publications on the surgical treatment of Meniere's disease.

RECENT FINDINGS: Refining surgical indications through recognition of clinical conditions with similar symptoms and through a more precise estimation of the degree of disability will improve the process of decision making for surgery. Further high-level evidence-based medical data supporting the effectiveness of intratympanic gentamycin has become available. Physiopathological progress, based on animal experiments, towards surgically applied intracochlear drug delivery is addressed.

SUMMARY: Studies using level 1 or 2 evidence-based medicine must be conducted to enable better decision making, such as in the application of intratympanic gentamycin or micropressure Meniett therapy at an earlier stage of Meniere's disease. If the results of such studies are conclusive for surgery, this will lead to a shorter duration of discomfort for patients before being offered the possibility of surgery.