Follow-up vestibular examination in Menière's disease.

A retrospective study was carried out on repeated audio-vestibular examinations in 53 patients with unilateral Meniere's disease, between the vertiginous spells. Most patients showed no change in the caloric response reduction of the afflicted ear in the subsequent tests compared with the first one. These patients had a comparatively long illness duration, a small percentage of fluctuations in the pure tone audiogram and mostly flat or falling type curves. A minority of patients showed an increase in or a fluctuating caloric test reduction. This group consists of patients with a short disease duration, mostly a fluctuating pure tone audiogram and rising or dome-shaped curves. The hearing loss and the caloric test reduction appear to deteriorate mainly in the first years of the disease. A certain parallelism between the course of vestibular and audiological damage seems to be present.