Comparing Intratympanic Gentamicin with Methylprednisolone in Meniere's Disease with Non-Serviceable Hearing

To compare the effectiveness of high dose fixed alternate day intratympanic gentamicin with methylprednisolone in the treatment of patients with unilateral, intractable Meniere's disease with poor hearing. Randomized single blind prospective parallel group trial in a tertiary referral centre. Twenty-two patients with definite unilateral Meniere's disease with average pure tone thresholds worse than 50 dB in the affected ear were enrolled. Eleven patients were treated with intratympanic buffered gentamicin and the other eleven were administered intratympanic methylprednisolone (both 4 injections, 40 mg/ml, on alternate days). Patients were assessed pre-intervention, 3 months post intervention and subsequently followed up for 2-4 years. Both groups of patients had significant control of vertigo, DHI scores and THI scores after treatment while the functional scores in the methylprednisolone group was not better than the pre- treatment scores in the long-term follow-up. 9 of 11(82%) patients in gentamicin group and 3 of 11(27%) patients in the methylprednisolone group achieved Class A vertigo control. The gentamicin group had better post intervention DHI scores (p = 0.016, 3 months and p = 0.046, long term) and Functional score (p = 0.014, 3 months and p = 0.05, long term). The hearing in both groups and THI scores, post intervention was similar between both groups. In patients with unilateral intractable MD with non-serviceable hearing, high fixed doses of both intratympanic gentamicin and methylprednisolone are effective in alleviating disease symptoms in long term follow-up. However, intratympanic gentamicin resulted in better control of vertigo, total DHI score and functional level scores than intratympanic methylprednisolone with no significant difference in hearing levels.

Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI- REF/2016/10/012363).