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| Post-Traumatic Hydrops | |
| Meniere’s disease is a clinical syndrome marked by fluctuating and sometime progressive sensorineural hearing loss, intermittent attacks of vertigo, and tinnitus. Other common features include aural fullness and pressure as well as diplacusis. More than 130 ears have passed since Prosper Meniere described the syndrome that bears his name and still the exact etiology of this disease eludes us. A common pathologic finding patients with Meniere’s disease endolymphatic hydrops; therefore, endolymphatic hydrops appears to be the final pathologic mechanism in Meniere’s patients. However, there are no definite answers about the pathophysiologic events leading to endolymphatic hydrops. The most common explanation is dysfunction of the endolymphatic homeostasis, namely dysfunction in production or resorption of the endolymph. Possible etiologies for Meniere’s disease are allergy, autoimmune, genetic inheritance, acoustic trauma, physical trauma to the temporal bone, post-infectious, and anatomic. Pulec identified the cause of Meniere’s disease in 36% of patients in a study of 120 consecutive patients with Meniere’s disease. Trauma, acoustic or physical, accounted for 3%. Nadol et al and Wolfson and Liberman described delayed endolymphantic hydrops occurring after viral labyrinthitis in almost simultaneous publications. The focus of this chapter is the development of endolymphatic hydrops (Meniere’s disease) following trauma, acoustic trauma, or the trauma to the membranous labyrinth following otologic infections. | |