Diuretic Treatment of Meniere's Disease

It is known that the pathological mechanism of Meniere's disease is endolymphatic hydrops, and many studies have investigated the clinical effect of diuretic drugs on patients with Meniere's disease. We reviewed the past treatment of Meniere's disease with diuretic drugs (urea, acetazolamide, glycerol, furosemide and isosorbide). Especially, isosorbide, an osmotic diuretic is known to be safe and useful for relief of attacks of vertigo, tinnitus, headache and shoulder stiffness which patients with Meniere's disease have. Recently, this drug has become the first choice for treatment of chronic Meniere's disesae. In the present paper, we reviewed the clinical efficiency of isosorbide based on past data, and presented several clinical cases of Meniere's disease treated isosorbide in Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Gifu University School of Medicine.