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Gentomicin?

Posted , 3 users are following.

JerseyJill
JerseyJill

Hi, I was diagnosed with Menieres about 10 years ago. I've had the steroid injections; they had no effect on me. I have it in my left ear onky and pray it doesn't turn bilateral someday. I've been in Betahistine for year. Had to take 6 capsules a day to get the benefit. It worked great for the first 10 months, but I've had a gradual return to vertigo episodes recently. I saw my ENT today and he is recommending it's time for me to try gentomicin injections. I'm afraid of this; probably mostly afraid it won't work. The odds on it helping are pretty good, though. Can

1 like, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • tanney
    tanney JerseyJill

    Posted

    Hi Jill.  Gentomicin is effective.  I had the injections over 35 years ago and it completely eliminated vertigo.  It does not eliminate tinnitus unfortunately.  There are two downsides to the proceedure.

    1.  You will likely have additional hearing loss in affected ear.  In my case it dropped from 70% to 40% hearing.  I can still hear from the ear today....35 years later.  Where is your hearing level today in the affected ear?

    2.  You likely will lose balance nerve in affected ear, but do not fear this as your good ear will compensate.  You will be able to live normally.

    What else are you afraid of about the Gent proceedure, Jill?  Maybe I can help calm your nerves.

    I'm very glad that I had the Gent proceedure done 35 years ago even though it was relatively unknown at that time.

    Don't fear it....it does eliminate (or at least minimize) vertigo attacks.

    Good luck.  Let us know what you decide.

  • eleftherio33095
    eleftherio33095 JerseyJill

    Posted

    What have your audiograms shown so far?

    Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN

    Clinical Neurophysiologist

    Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology

    • eleftherio33095
      eleftherio33095 JerseyJill

      Posted

      Objectively, if you have tried everything so far, then intratympanic gentamicin injections is the next step.

      Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN

      Clinical Neurophysiologist

      Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology

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