VESTIBULAR NEURECTOMY - A HISTOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL-STUDY OF RESULTS

Posterior fossa vestibular neurectomy has become one of the most effec tive surgical procedures for control of vertigo symptoms in Meniere's disease. A small group of patients continue to have vertigo and demons trable vestibular function by electronystagmography (ENG) post-operati vely. Another group of patients may have no vertigo, despite residual vestibular function on caloric testing. In an effort to correlate hist ological findings with clinical outcome, nerve biopsies were taken fro m seven patients undergoing vestibular neurectomy. Fibre counts of ner ve biopsies were compared with clinical, audiometric and ENG results. Results of this study demonstrate that complete reduction of vestibula r response (on caloric testing) and clinical cure of vertigo can be ob tained despite a variable number of nerve fibres at vestibular neurect omy.