In another post there was a quote by turnitaround as follows, “Vestibular Neuritis is an old fashioned diagnosis.”
Can you give me any other info on this - do doctors no longer use this as a diagnosis or has something taken its place?
The reason I ask is that I thought my recent problems of extreme noise sensitivity and facial/ear touching sensitivity and everything more or less making me feel like I’m having brain zaps may be nerve related, more specifically vestibular neuritis, even though I haven’t had a cold and that’s what usually triggers it. So I’m interested in learning more on this topic (and I know, I shouldn’t be self-diagnosing myself).
There are many issues with it, not least that there is no scientific evidence that the issue is caused by a virus (Google it and prove me wrong!)
The central challenge for medicine is the lack of high resolution tests that can see so deep into the body in a live human being to be sure of the actual cause.
Another is its sometimes used to explain a chronic condition - viral attacks are almost never chronic - they happen as a big bang and then that’s it.
I’ve heard eminent doctors arguing that its very unlikely that an infection can get so deep in the body, particularly in the western world, so its as likely as being hit by lightning.
The modern term for such a condition is ‘Acute Peripheral Vestibulopathy’ which is in part a recognition that the underlying aetiology has not been ascertained and that no test can definitely determine the cause.
Take a look at this great video - ‘recurrent VN or labs’ is more likely ‘MAV’, and they use the old terms but will forgive them as the guy is talking sense!
Yes that’s pretty balanced and covers the controversy.
In my opinion this branch of medicine has a long way to mature.
My symptoms were initially put down to ‘a virus’ but because it went chronic it was ultimately reevaluated, first as MAV, then as Secondary Hydrops after a possible perilymph fistula (which caused the initial acute phase). This is far too complex a diagnosis for a primary care doctor. I have a suspicion that a lot of labyrinth trauma is physical, not due to a pathogen. You don’t have particularly good pain receptors there so aside from audio vestibular symptoms it’s not like you’d be aware of physical damage. When I thumped my ear it was ever so slightly uncomfortable but there was no pain and I wasn’t dizzy until a few minutes afterwards.
Then there is a huge area of possibility that tiny imbalances in the management of hormones and or salts in the blood might affect ear homeostasis chronically.
