Glycerol Test In Ménière's Disease

Abstract

Ingestion of glycerol, 1.5 g/kg body weight, causes a transient reduction of the hearing loss in the early stage of Ménière's disease. In advanced Ménière eases with mainly flat loss the glycerol effect is less regular. In some cases improvements occur, the threshold shifts being most pronounced in the consonant area and associated with considerable speech discrimination gain. No glycerol effect is seen in normals or cases of cochlear deafness of other types. The action of glycerol is purely osmotic and the effect in Ménière cases is probably due to a reduction of intralabyrinthine pressure. The findings indicate that endolymphatic hydrops contributes to the hearing loss in Ménière's disease on a mechanical basis by hydrodynamics damping of the organ of Corti. In clinical practice a positive glycerol test indicates reversibility and that treatment with diuretic drugs may be of value.