Labyrinthitis Unpacked: Clinical Perspectives & Management

[Dr. Suana Chandrashekar] Luckily the vast majority, well over 90% of labyrinthitis [is viral], which is interchangeably used with vestibular neuritis or vestibular neuronitis, there's like, as you and I talked about in the past, it seems like everything in otology has at least three names, if not more. These are often interchangeable because we don't really, we cannot tell you the site of lesion is in the labyrinth or along the vestibular nerve or even along the superior or inferior vestibular nerve. We just know that it's a peripheral vestibular itis.

The vast majority are viral, which means that they don't demolish the ear and they are recoverable. We start to see recovery, initial recovery in about three weeks. Most people have a full recovery by three months, like the outside limit. If you're older, if you have some underlying balance disorder, if you have peripheral neuropathy, if you have cataracts, if you have glaucoma, if you have something else that's going to affect your balance system, it may take you longer to recover. In general, even though it's absolutely horrific, and you remember every minute of that episode, as if it happened yesterday, the full recovery happens pretty well in these patients.