Whether or not attacks of Meniere's disease are related to ruptures in the membranous labyrinth is still a point of contention. To help clarify this point, we used light microscopy to study the membranous labyrinth in 14 temporal bones with hydrops from patients with Meniere's disease, four bones with hydrops from patients without Meniere's disease, and 11 normal bones. Findings suggest that ruptures are specific to bones with hydrops from patients with Meniere's disease and that they occur more frequently in Reissner's membrane than in the vestibular membranes.
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