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What is Ménière's Disease?
Ménière's Disease is a complex, progressive
disorder of the inner ear characterized by the feeling of dizziness or a
"spinning" sensation (rotational vertigo) associated with hearing
loss, fullness or pressure in the ear, and roaring or ringing in the ear (tinnitus).
Approximately 2.6 million people in the US and Europe suffer from Ménière's
Disease.1
| History
of Ménière's Disease |
Prosper Ménière, 1799-1862
In 1838, the French physician Prosper Ménière was appointed director
of a large deaf-mute institute in Paris, the Institut des Sourds-Muets,
and held this position for the rest of his life. He became
particularly interested in diseases of the inner ear, and presented a
paper before the French Academy of Medicine in 1861. Ménière was not
trying to define a disease in this paper, but wanted to persuade his
medical colleagues that symptoms of vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus
were related and probably caused by a disease of the inner ear.
This was a revolutionary and highly
controversial concept, which was not well-received by Ménière's
colleagues. In Ménière's time, the ear's function as a balance organ
was not known--it was commonly believed that vertigo was akin to
epileptic seizures and strokes, thought to arise from an abnormally
high level of blood in the vessels of the brain. The preferred methods
of treatment for these ailments were bleeding and leeching; methods
that, Ménière argued, were more harmful than helpful.
1. Stahle, J. Stahle C., Arenberg I.K.
1978. The incidence of Ménière's Disease. Arch Otolaryngol.
104:99-102.
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Portrait
courtesy of The Prosper Ménière Society |
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