Ménière's disease treatment: a patient-centered systematic review

Abstract

Ménière's disease is a disorder of the inner ear affecting hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo, low-pitched tinnitus, and hearing loss. There is currently no gold standard treatment for Ménière's disease. We conducted a systematic search of the Cochrane Database, as a high-quality source of evidence-based therapies, for reviews on the efficacy of etiological therapy or on Ménière's disease or its symptoms. Following recent positive experiences reported by other research teams, we decided to involve a patients' representative in the assessment and analysis of the evidence retrieved in the literature in order to achieve a more patient-centered evaluation of the therapies. Evidence confirms that an effective treatment of Ménière's disease is still missing, but recent discoveries on the microvascular etiology of Ménière's disease may be assimilated by new evidence-based therapeutic approaches.