Introduction: Meniere's Disease (MD) is associated with rotatory vertigo, unstable
levels of hearing, tinnitus, along with vegetative symptoms and postural instability.
Progressive hearing loss can be treated in part successfully with Intratympanic Steroid
(ITS) (dexamethasone) injection. Aim: To investigate the effects of ITS treatment
on vestibular system in MD. Materials and Methods: This retrospective case-control
study, was conducted at Semmelweis University, Department of Otolaryngology and Head
and Neck Surgery during the period of January, 2018 to March, 2020. Study involved
120 patient data suffering from advanced MD. Thirty-eight patients suffering from
advanced stage of MD received ITS treatment along with 82 patients with advanced MD
that were treated with conservative treatment based on international guidelines. The
results of vestibular function tests using ultrasound-computer-craniocorpography (US-COMP-CCG)
before and after administration of ITS injection were compared, using Mann-Whitney
U test and logistic regression. To analyse the baseline characteristic of the control
and treated groups, Mann-Whitney U test and Chi-square test were applied. Results:
Based on the comparison between the baseline characteristic of the control and ITS
groups, there was no significant difference detected in case of the US-COMP-CCG parameters,
nor was it when the distribution of age groups and gender were contrasted. When the
distribution of US-COMP-CCG parameters before and after the steroid treatment were
contrasted using boxplots, there was no obvious difference between the parameters,
which was also strengthened by the nonsignificant statistical difference. In case
of the parameters of stepping test the same outcome was detected. Comparing the boxplots
of the parameters of both tests after the treatment and of the control group, no significant
difference was detected. Long-term follow-up data analysis was carried out using Kaplan-Meier
curve and logistic regression, and there was no statistically significant difference
between the treated and nontreated groups {p=0.445; Odds ratio: 1.654 (95% CI: 0.166-0.197)}.
Conclusion: Based on US-COMP-CCG, the ITS injection seems to have no impact on the
vestibular system, although seems to be efficient in the management of some cases
of MD.
