Treatment of Aural Vertigo Ménière's Disease with Traditional Chinese Medicine：A Review

Ménière's disease（MD）is an inner ear disease characterized by vertigo，tinnitus，hearing loss，and ear stuffiness. Modern therapies such as drugs，surgery，and vestibular function rehabilitation have limited effects in relieving the symptoms and reducing the recurrence. Traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）can alleviate the symptoms of MD with simple operation and mild adverse reactions while emphasizing psychological adjustment. The TCM treatment of MD is individualized depending on different stages and pathogenic factors. The internal treatment mainly targets phlegm，dampness，water，wind，fire，deficiency，and blood stasis. External interventions include acupuncture and moxibustion. This paper reviewed the published articles about the treatment of MD with TCM. In recent five years，the published studies were mainly clinical trials and experience discussion（or case reports），and few reports of fundamental research were published. In these studies，the Western medicine diagnosis of MD mostly refers to the Diagnostic Basis and Efficacy Evaluation of Ménière's Disease（Guiyang，2006）and the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Ménière's Disease（2017），while the TCM diagnosis mostly refers to the Criteria of Diagnosis and Therapeutic Effect of Diseases and Syndromes in Traditional Chinese Medicine issued by the National Administration of TCM in 1994. The efficacy was mostly evaluated based on clinical efficacy，scales，syndrome scores，pure tone audiometry，etc.，while caboratory indexes were rarely used. The available clinical studies about the treatment of MD with TCM generally have low quality of evidence and single intervention means. In the future，the research on the treatment of MD with TCM can be improved by standardizing the research program，improving the quality of evidence，exploring more intervention methods，and strengthening basic research.