Surgical Ear Plugs Treat Superior Canal Dehiscence

Filed in archive Studies , Treatment on May 25, 2006

Superior canal dehiscence is a debilitating and relatively rare syndrome that consists of the following symptoms:

• Rapid, uncontrollable eye movements that swish and thump as the eyes roll and blink.

• Bones that creak as the body moves.

• Sudden dizziness, loss of balance.

• Falling down after a loud noise, such as the sound of your own voice, a cough or even laughter.

Sufferers of this condition, often lose balance, fall down stairs, are unable to read or sleep due to loud noises inside their head, and some become convinced they are mentally ill, suffering from symptoms that won't be cured by conventional treatments.

However, surgeons from Johns Hopkins have proven that these symptoms can be all successfully treated by a single operation that plugs up a threadbare layer of bone in the inner ear.

"The surgical plugging procedure can put a stop to even severe symptoms and can lead to a return to normal daily activities and, in some cases, to a mild-to-moderate improvement in hearing," says Lloyd B. Minor, M.D., the Andelot Professor and director of otolaryngology - head and neck surgery at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It was Minor who, in 1998, first clinically described superior canal dehiscence and developed the surgical techniques to repair it.

Read more at Science Daily.