The Mixing of Fluids in the Ear
When the endolymph fluid inside the labyrinth of the inner ear changes, by increasing in volume, it can cause the membrane inside the labyrinth to blow up like a balloon. This balloon can rupture when it gets too large, causing the endolymph fluid to mix with the perilymph fluid, also of the inner ear, and causing the symptoms of Meniere's disease. Kept separate, these fluids move when the head moves and help to keep a person's equilibrium. When the two fluids mix an unnatural fluid movement occurs, causing extreme vertigo.
Symptom Management as Treatment
Your doctor will likely focus on managing the vertigo attacks, reducing the frequency of the symptoms and most importantly, maintaining the patient's hearing. Removing caffeine and salt may help keep the amount of attacks down, and eliminating tobacco usage and stress will likely improve the severity of the attacks. These are the best ways to reduce the symptoms of Meniere's.
Surgical Versus Non-Surgical Treatments
For those patients with Meniere's-related hearing loss, labyrinthectomy is one surgical treatment that is available. For those without any hearing loss endolymphatic sac surgery has proven successful. However, eighty-seven percent of patients have benefited from the more conservative, non-surgical measures. Surgical treatments for the disease are often controversial because it is questionable whether surgery is really necessary for the treatment of this disease.
Tags: endolymph fluid, hearing loss, help keep, inside labyrinth, symptoms Meniere, will likely