Chiari type 1 and Ménière’s disease

General
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Hi all

I’ve been diagnosed with Chiari type 1 for about a year and today I was also diagnosed with Ménière’s disease. Has anyone else been diagnosed with both? I also have a syrinx and am struggling with some coordination problems.
Did you have decompression surgery? Did it help at all?

Thanks in advance
Doris

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I would be leery of the Meniere’s disease diagnosis as Chiari can very much affect hearing and the feeling of dizziness. I found that surgery did not help those symptoms but that vestibular processing therapy after surgery did.

I also have to say that being labelled as having Meniere’s disease is not a diagnosis. Meniere’s is a cluster of symptoms with an unknown cause given a name. Again, it is a label given to a group of symptoms that a person reports. No diagnostics can confirm Meniere’s. Treatment offered is sketchy at best with the more common approach of being told that it is chronic with no treatment available. Best to not settle with the Meniere’s “diagnosis” and pursue Chiari and its’ ramifications. Of course, if enough treatment options are tried perhaps one of them will be the right one!

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I have both. The actual medical name for what may be referred to as “Menieres disease” is endolymphatic hydrops, which is increased fluid in the inner ear that isn’t draining. This can be caused by abnormal formation of the inner ear canals, which doesn’t allow the inner ear to drain properly, and, in my case, can be exacerbated by allergies which causes increased fluid. It makes sense if someone has abnormal formation of the skull that they could have both chiari and endolymphatic hydrops, which is what caused mine. You can also have some of the same symptoms from pressure on the nerves from chiari, so you need to have further testing related to actual testing pressure in the ear and eardrum reflex called a tympanogram and test on eye movement (nystagmus) called an ENG (electronystagmography), which is caused by the eyes reactions to perceived movement from fluid in ear.

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Hi TrellC
Thank you so much for explaining this - and yes, it does make sense! I had over 35 episodes of vertigo within a year after being diagnosed with chiari. I have just had my decompression surgery so will have to see if this improves the hearing/ balance side of things.
Thanks for taking the time to reply
Doris