Medical Treatment in Ménière's Disease: Avoiding Vestibular Neurectomy and Facilitating Postoperative Compensation

The efficacy of medical treatment in preventing the need for vestibular neurectomy (VN) in patients with disabling Ménière's disease, and in facilitating postoperative compensation of equilibrium after VN, was investigated. Ninety-five patients with classic symptoms of unilateral incapacitating Ménière's disease were included. Patients were treated with either 16 mg betahistine three-times daily ( n =49) or 125 mg acetazolamide once-daily ( n =46) for 6 months. The study showed that marked benefit was achieved in 51 of the 95 patients, of whom significantly more were in the betahistine group than in the acetazolamide group [32 (65%) vs 19 (41%); p