Effect of long-term betahistine treatment on the clinical outcomes of patients with cochlear Meniere's disease.

Background: Many studies have discussed the betahistine treatment for Meniere's disease (MD). However, regarding cochlear MD, there is no consensus on the long-term betahistine treatment.

Aims/objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationship between the betahistine treatment duration in patients with cochlear MD and their clinical outcomes.

Material and methods: We enrolled 78 patients with 96 ears who were diagnosed with cochlear MD and received the treatment for more than 6 months. Outcomes included the hearing status, frequency of acute hearing loss attack, and whether the disease progressed to MD. Clinical characteristics including age, sex, side of affected ear, treatment duration of betahistine and trichlormethiazide, and pre-treatment hearing level was recorded from medical charts.

Results: Comparing the clinical characteristics by outcomes, the average betahistine treatment duration was the independent factor for hearing status of four-tone average (p = 0.01) and low-tone average (p = 0.03). Patients with average betahistine treatment duration of at least 277 days per year had higher odds ratio for improvement of the hearing status of four-tone and low-tone average.

Conclusions: For patients with cochlear MD, regular and long-term betahistine treatment can benefit their hearing outcome in the low- and medium-frequency.