The temporal bone in patients with Meniere's disease

Sixty-three patients with Meniere's disease were compared with a group of healthy individuals with respect to findings at tomography and plain radiography. The temporal bone in patients differed in many respects from that in the healthy controls. Characteristic features in patients were a lack of periaqueductal pneumatization, a lack of pneumatization medial to the arcuate eminence, a short vestibular aqueduct, a narrow external aperture of the vestibular aqueduct, and a reduction in size of the mastoid air cell system. The mean mastoid area in the diseased ear in patients was 7.93 cm2 and in controls 11.59 cm2. The vestibular aqueduct was visible in its full length on tomograms in 81% of the healthy controls and in 65% of the diseased ears in patients. The mean volume of the mastoid air cell system in Meniere patients, determined at operation, was 5.3 ml.