Evidence for a left ear bias in incidence of Meniere’s disease

Abstract

Objective: to explore a side of lesion differences in Meniere’s disease (MD).

Design: a retrospective review (2019–2021) was conducted of patients with definite MD, as defined by 2015 Bárány Society diagnostic criteria. Testing information included pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, and extra-tympanic electrocochleography (ECochG). Normative ECochG data from healthy subjects determined the 95% cut-off value for clinical abnormality.

Study sample: 107 patients with definite MD were included in the study and 40 healthy controls.

Results: the review identified 75 patients with unilateral MD and 32 patients with bilateral MD according to their clinical histories. 79% of unilateral cases were found to have MD on the L ear. 94% of bilateral MD cases had L ears more affected than R ears. Objective ECochG testing indicated a greater incidence of elevated SP/AP area curve and amplitude ratios in L ears. On binomial testing, all results indicate a highly significant bias of MD to the L side.

Conclusions: unilateral MD appears more common on the L side than the R, suggesting that the disease process underlying MD is not symmetrical. MD also appears more common in females than males. It appears that there is a physiological asymmetry in the progression/cause of MD.

Financial disclosures: this study was funded by Deanship of Scientific Research, the University of Jordan.

Disclosure statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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