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Updated: Aug 16, 2025
Endolymphatic Duct Blockage as a Surgical Treatment Option for Ménière's Disease
Published on: April 28, 2023
Meniere's Disease Patients with Distinct Sac Pathoanatomic Findings React Differently to Endolymphatic Duct Blockage
Qin Wang1, Junjiao Hu2, Wei Li1
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Objectives:
To explore the possible difference in response to endolymphatic duct blockage (EDB) treatment in patients with Meniere's disease (MD) with distinct pathoanatomic characteristics of the sac.
Methods:
In a total of 24 patients with MD receiving EDB treatment, the dynamics of the vertigo attack, hearing, vestibular function, and endolymph hydrops (EH) before surgery and 40 months following surgery in patients with normoplastic extraosseous portion of endolymphatic sac (eES) were compared with that in patients with atrophic eES.
Results:
A higher prevalence of complete vertigo control, better cochlear and vestibular function, and lower endolymph to vestibule-volume ratio were found in patients with normoplastic eES than in those with atrophic eES. Moreover, the reversal of EH was found in a total of six patients in normoplastic eES group, but no reversal of EH was detected in the atrophic eES group after surgery.
Conclusions:
A difference in response to EDB treatment was shown in the MD patients with normoplastic eES and those with atrophic eES; the reversal of EH was found in the normoplastic eES group, but not in the atrophic eES group after surgery, suggesting two distinct pathologies in the eESs may underlie the pathogenesis of EH in two subgroups of MD patients.
Level Of Evidence:
4 Laryngoscope, 133:2761-2769, 2023.
