My CT’s have been seen by two radiologists here in SF, a SSCD specialist at the House Clinic in LA and by the head of the neuro-otology association of the US in Utah and by a neuro-radiologist at CU Health in Denver. First ones say yes, SSCD; second says definitely not; third said yes but not cause of symptoms. Swell eh?
My CT was of the temporal bones to check for dehiscence. Found on the left side only. I went for second opinion. They did vestibular testing and had second scan done. It did not show dehiscence. Now I am stuck with competing opinions, but the majority do not think my symptoms are of dehiscence.
My doctor (a surgeon) told me that you can’t even see a fracture in the Stapes bone on CT, it’s simply not high enough resolution. When it comes to ears I simply wouldn’t trust a CT 100%, wait until bone scans are much higher resolution …
In any case I have a suspicion that Hydrops is under diagnosed and this could explain a lot of people’s symptoms. I shudder to think how many people must have had this procedure that are probably suffering from Secondary Hydrops … this condition can take years to improve and sometimes people simply aren’t patient enough so they go for quick fix which could end in disaster.
Medicine suffers from ‘fashions’ and ‘flavour of the year’ amongst practitioners … they go to conferences and get ‘fed’ the latest research and can over-zealously follow this up on return to their clinic.
In the 80’s and 90’s Perilymph Fistula’s were over diagnosed and the surgery carried out many many times. I’ve not read many success stories. Actually I’ve read one. Out of maybe a dozen accounts of having the surgery.
We had a recent account on here where someone lost their hearing from just PLF surgery - let alone SSCD surgery!!
That is not true James. They reformat and they can see the wornout bones. Unfortunately, only certain radiology departments can reformat them. See Dr. Hain’s website. He specifically asks his patients to go only to certain hospital to go for their CT.
Take a look at the account above - what is the point of surgery which can fail and leave you deaf? Totally ridiculous outcome. Poor guy! Do not trust this procedure until there is a decade or two of experience behind it at the very least!
Most of the symptoms sound exactly like Secondary Hydrops - surely an alternative diagnosis is a particular flavour of Hydrops - surgery will do nothing to resolve that!