Hearing, balance, and imaging assessment in adolescent Menière's disease: A retrospective analysis.

Objective: To retrospectively analyze clinical features in adolescent Menière's disease (MD).

Methods: The medical records of adolescents with MD (11-17 years old) from May 2014 to March 2023 in Shandong Provincial ENT Hospital were retrospectively analyzed, including clinical features, a battery of auditory and vestibular function tests, sensory organization test, and imaging assessments. Patients with recurrent vertigo of childhood (RVC) were as controls.

Results: Compared with RVC, adolescent MD showed higher pure tone average threshold ( < .001), lower speech discrimination score ( = .014), and lower otoacoustic emission pass rates ( = .005). Adolescents with MD exhibited significant reduction in equilibrium score (Conditions 1, 5, and 6; 1 = .035; 5 = .033; 6 = .003), composite sensory score ( = .014), and vestibular sensory score ( = .029). Adolescents with bilateral MD exhibited worse performance in equilibrium score and strategy score compared to adolescents with unilateral MD. For the affected ear, the more severe endolymphatic hydrops detected by gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, the higher the auditory brainstem response threshold ( = .850,  = .007), and the lower the otoacoustic emission pass rate ( = -.976,  < .001).

Conclusion: Adolescent MD has similar vestibular information inputs with that of RVC, but the ability for the nerve center to use these clues to maintain balance is worse in adolescents with MD. There were potential differences in vestibular weights in adolescents with unilateral and bilateral MD, also potential effects on vision and proprioception.

Level Of Evidence: Level 4.