Place of Vestibular Nerve Section in M'eni'ere's Disease.

It is likely that as new approaches are introduced in the treatment of any condition which hitherto has seemed intractable the value of the older methods may be forgotten. Thi8 is especially true when the new approaches are introduced by members of another specialty. Such in this country appears to be the fate of vestibular neurotomy in the treatment of Miniere's disease, particularly in those patients who still retain useful hearing in the affected ear and who have not been relieved by medicinal therapy. Thus in an editorial article in the B.M.7. (29 June 1963) the neurosurgical approach was not even mentioned when the surgical treatment of Meniere's disease was discussed. Yet in Sweden (Castellano, 1951), the United States (Ueki and Walker, 1960), and Germany (Grdschel and Wustrow, 1961) the operation still has its advocates. It therefore seems opportune to compare its merits and its hazards with those of other surgical approaches ; and also to report a small personal series of cases which indicate not only that neurotomy, given the right indications, is almost invariably successful, but that useful hearing may often be preserved in the affected ear for many