Therapy for Ménière's disease.

Abstract

To the Editor .—As a recent investigator and author of a double-blind crossover clinical study, I have great appreciation for the difficulties in the study of the surgical therapy for Meniere's disease published in theArchives(1981;107:271-277) by Thomsen and co-workers. Their pride in this well-executed study is apparent and, in my opinion, justified. I offer a few small criticisms that may be only quibbling in terms of the overall impact of this work. First, like all authors who can be proud of their work, they have implied in the "Comment" section of their article that all surgical procedures for Meniere's disease are now suspect as proved by their study, whereas a proper conclusion from their article is that placement of a Silastic foreign body from the endolymphatic sac into the mastoid cavity gives no better results than mastoidectomy. Surgeons experienced with Silastic know that the body tends to allow