Intratympanic (IT) Therapies for Menière’s Disease: Some Consensus Among the Confusion

Purpose of Review: Aminoglycosides and corticosteroids are commonly used to treat Menière’s disease. Intratympanic (IT) administration of these medications allows high inner ear concentrations without significant adverse systemic effects. As a direct result, IT therapy has grown in popularity. Recent studies have compared patient outcomes between IT aminoglycosides and corticosteroids. This review summarizes these findings. Recent Findings: Trials comparing IT corticosteroids to IT placebo or oral therapy have had conflicting results. Most recently, Lambert et al. investigated the effect of IT dexamethasone in a sustained-release formulation compared to placebo. Their findings demonstrated improvement in some secondary measures of vertigo with the sustained-release formulation. IT gentamicin is known to be effective in controlling vertigo in Menière’s disease. In a recent study from 2016, Patel et al. compared IT gentamicin and IT methylprednisolone in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial and identified no significant differences between the two in vertigo control. Summary: IT injections of aminoglycosides and corticosteroids can improve vertigo control. Hearing and vestibular loss however may result with IT aminoglycosides. Corticosteroids demonstrate limited hearing loss but may not have the same efficacy in controlling vertigo. Further investigation in the etiology of Menière’s disease is needed to tailor the proposed treatment to suit the disease mechanism.