Is cochlear implantation an effective treatment for Menière's disease?

OBJECTIVES: describe the results of a retrospective study of cochlear implantation (CI) in seven subjects with Menière's disease.

METHODOLOGY: The subjects received either the Nucleus CI24RE(CA)/CI512 or the Advanced Bionics HiRes90K CI systems which use the ACE, MP3000, or HiRes S Fidelity 120 coding strategies. The audiometric measures included monosyllabic word lists (NVA) in quiet at 65 dB SPL and sentences in noise (LIST) at +10 dB SNR. The quality of life after implantation was assessed by means of the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ).

RESULTS: After CI, the hearing of all subjects improved significantly (p < 0.001) as did their speech recognition (p = 0.018). Speech recognition in noise showed a mean improvement of 47%. The results were less clear for the treatment of vertigo associated with Menière's, as some patients continued to have vestibular attacks after implantation. On the NCIQ, subjects reported a mean quality of life after CI of 48.3%.

CONCLUSIONS: This study clearly demonstrates that cochlear implantation is an adequate treatment of speech perception for subjects with Menière's disease who go on to develop bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss.