What are the symptoms of Meniere's syndrome?

Meniere's syndrome is an inner ear disease and also has obvious symptoms, such as dizziness, deafness and tinnitus. Our ears are the way we listen to the beautiful moans of the world. If ear diseases are not treated in time, they will have a great impact on our health. Therefore, we should pay considerable attention to Meniere's syndrome.

Meniere's syndrome, an idiopathic inner ear disease, formerly known as Meniere's disease, was first proposed by French physician Prosper Ménière in 1861. The main pathological change of this disease is hydrops of the membranous labyrinth, and the clinical manifestations are recurrent episodes of rotational vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss, tinnitus and aural fullness. This disease mostly occurs in middle-aged and young people aged 30 to 50 years old and is rare in children. There is no significant difference in the incidence between men and women. 10% to 50% of patients suffer from the disease in both ears.

1. Vertigo

Most cases are sudden onset of rotational vertigo. Patients often feel that the surrounding objects are rotating around themselves in a certain direction, and the symptoms can be alleviated when closing their eyes. It is often accompanied by autonomic nervous system reflex symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, pale complexion, cold sweats, and decreased blood pressure [3]. Any movement of the head can make vertigo worse. The patients are always conscious, and some patients remain awake even if they suddenly fall.

The duration of vertigo is usually 10 minutes or several hours, and the longest does not exceed 24 hours. After an attack of vertigo, there will be an intermittent period during which the symptoms disappear. The length of the intermittent period varies from person to person, ranging from a few days to several years. Vertigo can occur repeatedly, with the duration and severity of each attack varying in the same patient and between different patients. The more vertigo attacks occur, the longer each attack lasts and the shorter the intervals between attacks.

2. Deafness

In the early stage, it is mostly sensorineural hearing loss with a low-frequency (125-500Hz) decline, which may be fluctuating. Hearing decreases during the attack period, and may partially or completely recover during the intermittent period. As the disease progresses, hearing loss may gradually worsen, and high-frequency (2-8kHz) hearing loss may gradually occur. This disease may also cause a special hearing change phenomenon: double hearing, that is, the affected ear and the healthy ear can hear the same pure sound as two sounds with different tones and timbres. Or it can be used to describe the sound with a tail tone.

3. Tinnitus

Tinnitus may be the earliest symptom of this disease. In the early stage, it may manifest as a continuous low-pitched blowing sound. In the late stage, noisy sounds of various tones may appear, such as bells, cicadas, wind, etc. Tinnitus may appear suddenly or worsen before an attack of vertigo. Tinnitus disappears during intermittent periods, but may persist in patients with long-term illness. A small number of patients may have bilateral tinnitus.

4. Stuffy feeling in the ears

During an attack of vertigo, the affected ear may experience a feeling of fullness, pressure, and heaviness. A few patients complained of mild pain and itching in the affected ear.