The resurrection of vestibular neurectomy: a 10-year experience with 115 cases

Between 1925 and 1945, Walter Dandy and Kenneth McKenzie performed more than 700 posterior fossa eighth nerve sections and vestibular neurectomies to treat the intractable vertigo accompanying Ménière's disease. During the past 10 years, with the aid of microsurgical techniques and the approach to the posterior fossa through the temporal bone, vestibular neurectomy has undergone a resurgence of popularity. When hearing is to be preserved, vestibular neurectomy is the surgical treatment of choice for patients who fail to undergo a remission of the vertigo attacks of Ménière's disease. This report reviews 115 consecutive vestibular neurectomies performed from 1978 to 1988 for the treatment of Ménière's disease. In 1978, retrolabyrinthine vestibular neurectomy (RVN), a procedure in which the posterior fossa is entered anterior to the sigmoid sinus and behind the labyrinth, was introduced. During the last 3 years, the approach to the posterior fossa has been a small dural opening behind the sigmoid sinus; this approach is known as the combined retrolabyrinthine retrosigmoid approach. There have been no cases of facial paralysis and no serious complications connected with this technique. A high incidence of headache (50%) resulted when the posterior wall of the internal auditory canal was drilled away for better exposure. Transient cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaking occurred in 7% of the patients undergoing RVN; however, no CSF leaks occurred when the combined retrolabyrinthine retrosigmoid approach was used. In the RVN series, wound infection occurred in 20% of the cases until perioperative antibiotics reduced the rate to 3%. The results in terms of curing or improving vertigo have been excellent (94%), and hearing has been preserved to within 20 dB preoperative levels in 76% of the cases. Until a cure for Ménière's disease is found, microsurgical posterior fossa vestibular neurectomy remains the best treatment.