Has any Ménière's patients had gentamicin injection? Any success/bad stories??

Intratympanic gentamicin is a recognized therapy for Meniere's disease.

Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN

Clinical Neurophysiologist

Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology

Whatever you do DO NOT have a Gentamcin injection.!!!  Too many people have become worse after it. Do some research on it.

I have read extensivly online about the use of gentamicin injections to destroy the vestibular mechanism and eliminate the false balance messaging to the brain.  I had the ECOG and other tests as well and was told that I have 25% remaining vestibular function in my left ear and that the information coming from that remaining function is faulty.  That all said, based on my reading I considered the injection (series of injections actually) but was advised by a doctor at the Johns Hopkins university hostpial that he did not believe that the dizziness was due to the defective vestibular mechanism, but that it was my brain adjusting to the nerve damage.  I went to the University of Maryland hospital as well and was told the same thing.  I saw a specialist in New York about 2 years ago, and he recommended a labrynthectomy (surgical removal of the vestibular mechanism) over the injections, and said that he was concerned that the injections could make things worse.  The thought that 'killing' the problematic parts is very attractive and I really wanted to pursue it, but given these expert opininons I cannot move forward with it.  As usual, these decisions are based on severity of the condition and risk.  My understanding based on what I have read is that if the dizziness is bad enough, debilitating, and reducing quality of life significantly, then that is considered against the risk and the injections are indicated in some cases.  Just to be very clear, I am a patient who is writing based on my own education on the topic, I am not a doctor and I have no credentials or expertise in this area.  I hope this helps. - Mike

I have not been diagnosed with Menieres as of yet. Right now, they are calling it migraine. At any rate, I went to the Ear clinic at Stanford University after I had a sudden sensoneural hearing loss that came back in 72hrs with steroids. I wanted their opinion on what diagnosis could be causing all my problems (which included dizziness, unsteadiness, facial pain/pressure, tinnitus ). I will first say that I have a very high respect for Stanford Dr's. They saved my dad who was in a coma for 3mos, when 3 other medical facilities said there was no hope. He is fine now, and it isn't the first time I've heard that kind of story regarding Stanford. So you can imagine the level of respect I have for that institution. The Dr I saw at the Ear clinic told me that in some patients, it is difficult to separate migraine from menieres early on, and they often overlap and may even be part of the same disease process. He thought I could possibly be early or subclinical menieres, and told me if I began with the vertigo again or had another hearing loss, the first treatment he would try would be the intratympanic injections of steroids, not gentamyacin. He said the steroid injections were first line therapy at their clinic (after low salt and diuretics were tried), and they've had excellent results. So perhaps you should look into these first? I know here in California, not all ENTs have the capability to do them, only certain ones. Your Dr should know who can do them.