Abstract
Meniere's disease patients often present with otalgia. However, doctors are often unable to listen to all of the patient's symptoms within the time allotted to attend to daily outpatient clinic visits. Consequently, otalgia has not yet been intensively investigated. This study attempted to investigate the clinical characteristics of otalgia in Meniere's disease patients. From February 2008 to June 2008, web-based questionnaires were administered and 59 patients answered. The results showed that otalgia was often accompanied by tinnitus or ear fullness. Otalgia frequency ranges from once everyday to once a week. The duration ranges between seconds and hours. With respect to the diagnosis and treatment of otalgia in Meniere's disease, many patients did not complain of otalgia to doctors. Some doctors understand and listen to the symptoms ; however, there have been no reports of patients who received intensive care for otalgia. Approximately 30% of the patients suffered from Meniere's disease and migraines or headaches, indicating close association between otalgia and migraines. There may be a common neural pathway leading to migraines that is associated with otalgia. The presence of a neural mechanism similar to the model explained in the trigeminovascular system theory may be associated with the glossopharyngeal nerve innervating the ear. Another possibility is that the sensory and somatosensory neuron cross-modality that is related to the sensation of ear fullness may somehow be associated with such otalgia cases. The limitation of this study is that the diagnosis of Meniere's disease is uncertain, since the enquiries were performed on the web and the diagnosis of Meniere's disease was not clearly confirmed. This patient group may suffer from Meniere's disease and anxiety disorder, depression, migraine-related dizziness and other forms of dizziness. This symptom may therefore be valuable to investigate new diagnostic and treatment strategies for Meniere's disease patients.
