Surgical treatment of Menière's disease--two techniques compared

Two techniques for surgical treatment of Menière's disease, endolymphatic sac decompression according to Shambough and decompression on the stapes footplate, i. e., platino decompression according to Martin, were compared. A series of 81 patients were hospitalized for treatment, and 20 surgical procedures were performed: platino decompression in eight cases, and endolymphatic sac decompression in 12. None of the eight patients had relapse of the disease after platino decompression, whereas the endolymphatic sac operation was followed by relapse in 6 of the 12 patients. Considering the postoperative values of hearing loss, the considerably lower incidence of relapse, and the technically simple procedure of platino decompression, this technique is recommended as a method of choice for the surgical treatment of Menière's disease.