Bilaterality of Meniere's disease.

The audiometric configurations of a randomly selected group of 360 patients with clinical Meniere's disease were analysed in conjunction with their clinical manifestations. Although 78.6% of the patients had an abnormal pure-tone audiogram in the opposite ear from that which was initially diagnosed as Meniere's disease, based on the entire clinical picture, the disease was found to be definitely bilateral in 32% of the patients. A peaking audiogram type was found to be most common, occurring in about half of the involved ears. In approximately half of those with bilateral disease the second ear became involved within two years of onset of involvement of the first ear, and in another 27% the second ear became involved after a period of 5 years or more. These observations stress the importance of conservation in managing Meniere's disease, especially when considering surgical intervention for intractable disease, with the hope of retaining or restoring labyrinthine function.