Delayed endolymphatic hydrops: a review of 15 cases.

Delayed endolymphatic hydrops is a disease entity that can be differentiated from Meniere's disease. This condition was first reported simultaneously by Nadol, et al. and Wolfson and Leiberman, with further clarification by Schuknecht. The disease is characterized by a profound sensorineural hearing loss in one ear, with the onset of episodic vertigo from that ear after a prolonged period of time (ipsilateral delayed endolymphatic hydrops) or the development of fluctuating hearing loss and/or episodic vertigo in the opposite ear after a prolonged period of time (contralateral delayed endolymphatic hydrops). This paper is a review of 15 cases of delayed endolymphatic hydrops, eight ipsilateral and seven contralateral. The results of this study indicate that surgical treatment for the ipsilateral form of the disease gave the best results. For the contralateral variant, it appears that medical measures should be the therapy of choice resorting, in the event of their failure, to conservative surgical intervention on what may be the only hearing ear to preserve hearing and control vertigo.