Gentamicin Treatment for Patients with Meniere's Disease

Meniere's disease is a disabling disease of the inner ear causing severe vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Because you cannot predict when you will be unable to function because of the attacks of vertigo, you lose your quality of life. Receiving injections of gentamicin in the inner ear is one option for you to consider so you can resume a fuller life.

Intratympanic/Transtympanic Gentamicin

For the patient who has Meniere's disease and the resulting severe vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus, undergoing an intratympanic gentamicin injection can be a "last resort" treatment when earlier treatments have not helped to resolve the vertigo and nausea. You will have a low dose of Gentamicin injected into your inner ear by way of a narrow needle. The gentamicin injection will damage the inner ear on purpose in order to stop the attacks of vertigo. The doctor will allow the medication to drain out of your ear after 30 minutes.

In order to achieve the goal of eliminating dizziness, your doctor will inject a low dose. A second low dose of gentamicin will be injected one month later. The medication has to be drained out of the inner ear so you will not have dizziness.

Advantages of ITG/TTG Injection

If you are concerned about possible health risks of other procedures, ITG/TTG is a lower risk option. When you choose this procedure, you must understand that your inner ear will be destroyed by the gentamicin injections, but your dizziness will end. Your hearing will not be impacted in the short term, but you may need to have repeat injections approximately one year later. Your tinnitus may also improve.

You may be able to resume a more normal life since your attacks of vertigo will be stopped. Once your vertigo stops, your quality of life may return to what you knew before you developed Meniere's disease.

The cost of ITG/TTG injections will be lower than that of other treatments for Meniere's disease, especially when you compare the results to a procedure such as vestibular nerve section (labyrinthectomy). Both labyrinthectomy and ITG/TTG produce similar results: 90 percent of Meniere's disease patients experience relief from their symptoms.

References

• Intratympanic/Transtympanic Gentamicin Treatment for Meniere's Disease
• Meniere's Disease

Resources

• Diizziness

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[amandaday63]

on 11/28/2009 this procedure hyas side effects that last longer than people want to tell you they do...after my gentamicin injections i felt ok for a few days, then i slowly developed increasing dizziness and nausea...i have now had to adapt to this feeeling of perpetual imbalance and visual problems, and the tinnitus is still araound..oh, and yep, hearing loss has occurred...now, i am told that this may all resolve after a few months, but I am currently disabled by the after affects of the gentamicin and cannot properly care for my three special needs children (i am a single mom)....before the procedure my doctor implied that i may have a slight loss of hearing after the injection, but never once mentioned the awful disequilibrium i would suffer...I beg you to inform your audience about these side effects so that they can then make a better/more informed decision about whether to undergo this pr...