Pillsbury K, Helm B, Kuhn JJ. Recovery of hearing loss in atypical Meniere’s disease after treatment with orofacial and neck massage: A case report. World J Otorhinolaryngol 2024; 11(3): 33-40 [DOI: 10.5319/wjo.v11.i3.33]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Kathleen Pillsbury, MS, Research Scientist, Epidemiologist and Medical Writer, Self-employed, PO Box 327, Ferrum, VA 24088, United States. kathleenmedwriter@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Otorhinolaryngology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Otorhinolaryngol. Nov 29, 2024; 11(3): 33-40 Published online Nov 29, 2024. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v11.i3.33
Recovery of hearing loss in atypical Meniere’s disease after treatment with orofacial and neck massage: A case report
Jeffery J Kuhn, Beth Helm, Kathleen Pillsbury
Kathleen Pillsbury, Epidemiologist and Medical Writer, Self-employed, Ferrum, VA 24088, United States
Beth Helm, Bon Secours InMotion Physical Therapy, Virginia Beach, VA 23453, United States
Jeffery J Kuhn, Department of Neurotology, Advent Health, Celebration, FL 34747, United States
Author contributions: Pillsbury K drafted the manuscript; Helm B and Kuhn JJ provided analysis and interpretation of clinical content and clinical advisement; all authors critically revised multiple drafts and approved the final version for submission.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from the patient for use of her data, and for the publication of this case report and accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kathleen Pillsbury, MS, Research Scientist, Epidemiologist and Medical Writer, Self-employed, PO Box 327, Ferrum, VA 24088, United States. kathleenmedwriter@gmail.com
Received: June 7, 2024 Revised: July 30, 2024 Accepted: October 30, 2024 Published online: November 29, 2024 Processing time: 173 Days and 16.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
A 48-year-old female presented with sudden-onset right-sided aural fullness, low-frequency hearing loss, and tinnitus. Medical history included right-sided temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) with crepitation, and retro-orbital headaches. The patient was diagnosed with atypical Meniere’s disease (MD) and received intratympanic steroids, prednisone, betahistine, and began a low-sodium diet; however, the patient’s symptoms worsened.
CASE SUMMARY
The patient sought physical therapy for TMJD; testing revealed reduced motion and dysfunction with vertical opening, lateral excursion of the mandible to the right, and tenderness to palpation. Treatment included soft tissue mobilization of right facial structures and temporal fossa, intraoral massage of the right pterygoid musculature, and massage of right neck structures. After 4 weeks, the patient noticed subjective improvement in hearing and decreased headaches. After 11 weeks, an audiogram showed that the hearing loss had recovered. The patient has continued the daily at-home intraoral/neck massage therapy and maintained normal hearing over 4 years to date. The temporal relationship between physical therapy and recovery of hearing loss suggests muscular or inflammatory etiology as at least partially causative of this patient’s symptoms. The mechanism of healing may have been due to decreased inflammation, improved blood flow, restored function of cranial nerves, or some combination of these and other unknown factors.
CONCLUSION
This report suggests that orofacial physical and massage therapy may be an effective treatment for the cochlear symptoms associated with MD.
Core Tip: A patient who experienced right-sided symptoms of Meniere’s disease (MD) with comorbid right sided temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) and mid-face/retro-orbital headaches experienced no relief from traditional MD treatments. The patient sought out physical therapy for TMJD, which included soft tissue mobilization of right facial structures and temporal fossa, intraoral massage, and massage of right neck structures. The patient recovered from the right-sided hearing loss and associated MD symptoms and had decreased headaches after 1 month. Physical and massage therapy for the cochlear symptoms associated with MD may be an important adjunctive treatment, though confirmatory studies are needed.
