PRELIMINARY GUIDELINES FOR REPORTING TREATMENT RESULTS IN MENIERES-DISEASE CONDUCTED BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE JAPANESE-SOCIETY-FOR-EQUILIBRIUM-RESEARCH, 1993

In order to draft guidelines for reporting treatment results in Meniere's disease (MD) in Japan, 17 committee members elected from the Japanese Society for Equilibrium Research (JSER) have met for about two years. The preliminary guidelines obtained from their discussions are summarized as follows. i) Evaluations of symptoms: Only definitive vertiginous spells with spontaneous nystagmus should be evaluated (AAOO, 1972). The parameter for the assessment of hearing levels should be evaluated using four-frequency pure-tone averages (PTA) at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz. ii) Evaluation period: Valid results for the evaluation should be based on observations at least six months before treatment and over at least 12 months after initiation of therapy. iii) Evaluation criteria The formula expressing the effects of treatment on vertiginous spells should adopt a numeric vertigo score, which is shown in the AAO-HNS (1985) guidelines. If the duration of pre-treatment evaluation period is less than 6 months, the divisor is replaced by the average of definitive spells per month for the period of observation. iv) Global judgment: For a global judgment, patients and doctors should jointly evaluate the treatment results from the standpoints of their subjective and objective symptoms respectively.