Surgery for vertigo

Spontaneous recovery or central compensation makes surgical procedures rare in patients with vertigo. Surgery for vertigo proposed after pharmacological or physical therapy fails to eliminate Ménière's disease and some very rare cases of paroxystic positional vertigo. The main target in treating Ménière's disease is to promote vestibular compensation, which is possible only with a nonprogressive and stable deficit leading to readjustment of vestibular reflexes. Surgical procedures can be classified as nondestructive (endolymphatic sac decompression, vestibular nerve decompression, patching of perilymphatic fistulas), selectively destructive (middle fossa or retrosigmoid vestibular neurotomy, lateral semi-circular plugging) and destructive (labyrinthectomy). Surgical indications essentially concern incapacitating vertigo and depend mainly on hearing status. In Ménière's disease, vestibular neurotomy can be regarded as the gold standard considering its good results on vertiginous episodes; however, scoring with functional and quality-of-life scales bring out residual deficiency in some cases.