Vestibular neuritis: a follow-up study

Seven to eight years after a disease period of vestibular neuritis 19 patients previously examined at our department were given a questionnaire about whether they had experienced any audiovestibular symptoms since they first fell ill. All 19 patients responded and 18 consented to participate in the long-term follow-up study. The patients were subjected to a clinical evaluation, a bithermal caloric test and audiological examinations with stapedius reflex measurements with use of the same technique as at the first examinations. Ten of the 18 patients had experienced recurrent vestibular symptoms with sensation of dysequilibrium and vertigo. Six of these 10 patients also had periods of positional vertigo. The remaining nine patients were free of symptoms. None of the patients had noticed any change in their hearing ability. The mean caloric side difference at the 7- or 8-year follow-up was not significantly higher in the group of patients with symptoms than in the group without symptoms. Neither did the group of patients with pathologically elevated stapedius reflex thresholds at onset display a larger mean caloric side difference than the group of patients with normal thresholds. However, a small caloric side difference at onset of the disease served as a predictor for residual vestibular symptoms. It is speculated whether the group of patients with residual symptoms had a different pathophysiological localization of their disease within the vestibular system than the group of patients with no symptoms at follow-up.