In order to draft guidelines for reporting treatment results in Japan, the 17 Committee Members elected from the Japan Society for Equilibrium Research have held discussion for about two years. Preliminary guidelines are summarized here.
1) Evaluation of Symptoms: Only definite vertiginous spells with spontaneous nystagmus should be considered for evaluation (AAOO 1972). Hearing levels assessed from the four-frequencies pure-tone average (PTA) at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 KHz, 2 KHz in Meniere's disease.
2) Evaluation Period: Valid results of the evaluation should be based on evaluation for over six months in pre-treatment and for more than twelve months in post-treatment after initiation of the therapy.
3) Evaluation Criteria: The formula expressing the effects of treatment on vertiginous spells should be the same as the AAOHNS (1985) criteria. If the duration of pre-treatment is less than six months, the divisor is the average number of definite spells per month during the period of observation.
4) Global Judgment: Patients and doctors should evaluate on their treatment results from the standpoints of their subjective symptoms and objective signs, respectively.