Dr. Andrea La Torre is an italian Otolaryngologist, who cares in special way for disorders of the inner ear, like tinnitus, sensorineural hearing loss, dizziness and balance disorders, inner ear hydrops, and Meniere's Disease.
Dr. La Torre lives in Italy, but patients can request his professional help even if living in other countries.
Dr. La Torre speaks...
If you live abroad, and you speak one of these four languages, the best choice is an audio+video evaluation on internet, using skype and a webcam, staying in your own home, without any need to travel to Italy. This way offers exactly the same level of evaluation of the patient and treatment but in easier and cheaper way (see right box).
Otherwise bring this page to a local doctor speaking one of these languages, and I will be very glad to explain my therapy to your doctor.
You can also have a contact through my professional facebook page, clicking on the facebook button.
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Treatment against Hydrops for Tinnitus, Hearing Loss, Vertigo, Dizziness, Fullness in the ear, Meniere's Disease
Tinnitus, Hearing loss (deafness), recurrent vertigo, Dizziness, Fullness in the ear, are always caused by a dysfunction in the ear and they never come from other areas of our body. The reason why many specialists continue to look for their origin outside the ear, is that they never study carefully the ear, as I did in more than 16.000 patients.
When a patient has everyone of these symptoms, we call this situation "Meniere's Disease". Every ENT specialist knows that the cause of Meniere's Disease is the excess of fluids (liquids) in the inner ear (labyrinth). [HYDROPS]
But the hydrops doesn't create always the full Meniere's Disease. Even isolated symptoms can be caused by the hydrops. But most of the specialists don't think about this possibility when some symptom is missing. So many patients with an incomplete syndrome remain without a diagnosis and without a therapy.
Knowing the biology, the anatomy and the phYsiology, it is easy to understand that the hydrops is the only possible cause of the symptoms in many patients. Because the cells of the cochlea (receptors for the function of hearing) and the vestibular receptors can not be repaired or regenerated, after a damage. This means that every damage in the inner ear is permanent and not treatable, but, fortunately, in many cases there is no damage in the ear.
The Hydrops is the only possible cause for every recurrent vertigo and for every subjective sensation of disequilibrium. These problems are never caused by permanent damages. If there is a permanent damage of the vestibular receptors there is no vertigo anymore, but a real loss of balance. So a permanent damage can only cause one crisis of vertigo, but it can not cause recurrent vertigo.
In every situation in which the patient complains of an inconstant tinnitus or an inconstant hearing loss, with moments in which the tinnitus disappears or becomes very low, or when the hearing, sometimes, recovers, the variability of the symptom can only be caused by the variability of the fluids (liquids) in the inner ear and never by permanent damages.
Only in case of a permanent tinnitus without any variability, or in case of a permanent hearing loss without any recover, a damage can be considered possible. This does not mean that every hearing loss or every tinnitus without variations is caused by a damage. Because a damage can never be demonstrated and even in these cases we can never exclude that a persistent excess of fluids (liquids) in the inner ear is creating a persistent tinnitus or a persistent hearing loss without any spontaneous improvement. In many cases the reduction of the hydrops is followed by an improvement even when this could not be predicted in advance.
Thus, the hydrops is a very frequent situation that can cause many different symptoms and not just the Meniere's Disease. And it is very important to think about this possibility before to say to the patient that there is no therapy.
The Hydrops is a treatable situation, because, even if we don't know what has created it, we know in wich way it is sustained. The main regulator of the fluids (liquids) in the inner ear is the antidiuretic hormone (ADH or vasopressin). It acts on the ear, changing the permeability of the aquaporins, special channels that let pass water. It seems that the hydrops can be created by a change of sensitivity of the inner ear to the action of the hormone. We can not change this sensitivity, but we can act on the release of the hormone and on its action in the ear.
To do this i have created many years ago a special treatment joining together, in a synergic way, medicaments and other treatments that are all well known.
My therapy is based on the association of an increased water intake (water is the main natural inhibitor of the ADH), a special diet for short periods (10 days), steroids for short periods (because they can control the action of the hormone), and medicaments active on neurotransmitters for few months, to control the stress. The stress is one of the most important activators of the antidiuretic hormone. In this way it is possible to control the release of the antidiuretic hormone and thus the hydrops.
Some patients need also an additional treatment with a prolonged period of diet (3 or 4 weeks), a prolonged period of steroids (2 weeks) and 2 intravenous infusions of mannitol, an osmotic diuretic.
The full treatment generally lasts 3-5 months but the improvement or even the total recover often occurs already in the first 10 days.
The therapy against hydrops was already prescribed by me to thousands of patients in Italy, where it is well known by many patients and even by many specialists. But it is still proposed only by me. Many specialist still prefer not to loose time to follow the patient and they prescribe nothing or therapies that can never be effective or other treatments that are more easy to manage for the doctor or that are more expensive (with an economical advantage for the doctors), but are not the best available choice for the patient.
The therapy is easy to follow. It has no side effects. It has a very good outcome when the problem to treat is just the hydrops. This means that it is always effective, when the problem is the recurrent crises of vertigo, the subjective disequilibrium, the sensation of fullness or pressure in the ear, and for tinnitus or hearing loss if they are variable.
The treatment is proposed as the best possible solution but without warranty of success even for a stationary and not variable tinnitus, or a stationary and not variable hearing loss. Of course, this treatment can not help when there are permanent damages. But a permanent damage is never predictable in advance, so I can state that every tinnitus or every hearing loss could be caused by the hydrops.
This therapy can not offer a definitive solution because, anyway, the relapses are possible. But they can be treated, if they will occur easily and quickly with short periods of treatment. Until now no other therapy can offer the same outcome.
This therapy, being the most effective treatment against the hydrops, is also the best solution for a full "Meniere's Disease".
Dr. Andrea La Torre
If you speak also Italian, English, Spanish or French you can now explore the full site. Click on one of these buttons
Have you a webcam
and a Skype account?
Since 2009, after more than 16.000 patients examinated carefully with special tests, I have stopped to perform diagnostic tests because, anyway, this is the best option for every patient who really needs a treatment for these problems. Anyway there is not a way to recognize a permanent damage inside the inner ear. So what is really important is to talk with the patient about the symptoms and their behaviour and not perform tests. The tests alone cannot give any useful information about the outcome of the treatment.
Having realized this, after 2 years and more of good outcome even without diagnostic tests, and being able to speak 4 languages, I have started to offer even consultations trough Skype to every patient in the world who needs it, hoping that spreading my therapy in the world will stimulate other specialists in the world to learn a different an more effective way to cure Meniere's Disease and hydrops, a treatable condition inside the inner ear.
So I've prepared full version of my website in English, Spanish and French, but I've decided also to prepare this synthetic page in a very simple English and to translate it (with the help of the traslator of Google) in as many language as possible.
My first goal is to spread the therapy as much as possible to reach patients in every country. So I've decided to ask a very low price for my consultation, the treatment and my assistance, or even to offer it totally free without asking nothing, if a patient can not pay it.
