Atypical meniere's?

Specific Illnesses & Conditions Meniere's
1

Hi,

Mostly, the drs i’ve seen are puzzled concerning the spells of vertigo that I get about once a month. One dr said, “Perhaps it is atypical Meniere’s”. He said this because I do not have any hearing loss so far.

A friend recently told me, “Meniere’s doesn’t always cause hearing loss”.

2

Hi

“Atypical” Menieres (atypical simply means unusual) is an old diagnosis that was thrown around and
still is by some doctors. They usually do this when it seems like the patient has Menieres but does not have
any hearing loss. Almost always, these patients turn out to have migraine (confirmed by response to drugs etc.).

The American Academy of Otolaryngolgy criteria for diagnosis of Menieres is as follows:

  1. A history of recurrent, spontaneous, rotational vertigo
    with at least two episodes lasting longer than 20
    minutes.
  2. Occurrence of tinnitus or aural fullness (or both) on
    the affected side.
    3. Sensorineural hearing loss as documented by audiometric
    testing on at least one occasion according to
    the AAO regulations concerning magnitude of hearing
    loss and frequencies affected.
  3. Exclusion of other causes for recurrent rotational
    vertigo.

Note that the hearing loss MUST be documented before the diagnosis of Menieres can be made.

Don’t be surprised by how many doctors don’t keep up to date with what’s happening - the criteria
above were published in 1995.

Adam

3

— Begin quote from “Raven”

Hi,

Mostly, the drs i’ve seen are puzzled concerning the spells of vertigo that I get about once a month. One dr said, “Perhaps it is atypical Meniere’s”. He said this because I do not have any hearing loss so far.

A friend recently told me, “Meniere’s doesn’t always cause hearing loss”.

— End quote

I am so with you, Raven.

My ENT acutally said that I sounded like I had atypical Meniere’s and he explained that sometimes people that didn’t have hearing loss meant that they just didn’t have it yet. …It didn’t neccesarrily mean that they wouldn’t get hearing loss at some point later.