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Water may cure patients with Meniere disease.

Naganuma H, Kawahara K, Tokumasu K, Okamoto M

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Kitasato University School of Medicine, 1-15-1 Kitasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 228-8555, Japan. naganuma@kitasato-u.ac.jp

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: We examined whether sufficient water intake is effective in the long-term control of vertigo and hearing activity in patients with Meniere disease (MD) for whom conventional therapy has proven unsuccessful. STUDY DESIGN: The authors conducted a time-series study with historical control. METHODS: Eighteen patients with MD in group 1 drank 35 mL/kg per day of water for 2 years. Twenty-nine patients with MD treated with the conventional dietary and diuretic therapy for more than 2 years during 1992 to 1999 at the same hospital were enrolled in a historical control of group 2. RESULTS: Patients in group 1 dramatically relieved vertigo and significantly improved in the hearing of the worst pure-tone average of three frequencies (0.125, 0.25, and 0.5 kHz) (low PTA) during the last 6 months of the study period. In contrast, patients in group 2 became worse in both the four- (0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz) frequency PTA and the low PTA, although their vertigo did improve. The number of patients whose hearing were improved, unchanged, and worse were 4, 12, and 2 in group 1 and 2, 11, and 16 in group 2, respectively. CONCLUSION: Deliberate modulation of the intake of water may be the simplest and most cost-effective medical treatment for patients with MD. Larger studies will be needed to confirm these results in a larger patient cohort.

Published 3 August 2006 in Laryngoscope, 116(8): 1455-60.
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