Career prospects with Meniere's disease

[B02]

I am currently an M1 and have been dealing with Meniere's disease for a while. I've got two questions.

1. How well managed would my symptoms need to be to pursue a career in surgery? Does the inherent risk of having an episode make me unfit to be a surgeon? If not, how frequent would episodes need to be before they jeopardized my career?

2. What are some alternative career paths in medicine that I should consider in case things go downhill over the next couple years before applying for residency?

I'll be glad to provide more information about my current symptoms, but given the variability of the disease I don't know how predictive it would be of my health years from now.

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[ACSurgeon]

I am currently an M1 and have been dealing with Meniere's disease for a while. I've got two questions.

1. How well managed would my symptoms need to be to pursue a career in surgery? Does the inherent risk of having an episode make me unfit to be a surgeon? If not, how frequent would episodes need to be before they jeopardized my career?

2. What are some alternative career paths in medicine that I should consider in case things go downhill over the next couple years before applying for residency?

I'll be glad to provide more information about my current symptoms, but given the variability of the disease I don't know how predictive it would be of my health years from now.

How functional are you? In other words does your condition impact your ability to function? Does sleep deprivation make it worse.

Anyone can theoretically become a surgeon, as long as you're mostly functional and can withstand the hours. Wait until you rotate on surgery and other fields and see what impact it has if any.

 

[member1000765]

You should really discuss this with your Otolaryngologist (Otologist preferably, if you have one). I'm assuming that you follow a low sodium, low caffeine diet and are on Dyazide with some sort of vestibulosuppressant (Meclizine, Valium, etc) for the big spins. Meniere's generally has a self-limiting course; over time the frequency and severity of the spins should plateau, but your hearing will ultimately drop if not treated. If your symptoms are well-controlled with medical management, then you're good to go. If your Meniere's is not responsive to conservative management and is highly symptomatic AND your hearing is serviceable, then you could look at either intratympanic Gentamicin or endolymphatic sac decompression for hearing-preservation treatment. If your hearing drops to beyond salvageable, then a labyrinthectomy would be the best choice. This would sacrifice any remaining hearing in the diseased ear, but the vestibulopathy would be fixed and you could always wear a CROS hearing aid or have a BAHA placed.

So "Does the inherent risk of having an episode make me unfit to be a surgeon? If not, how frequent would episodes need to be before they jeopardized my career?"

No, I don't think the risk of having an episode would make you unfit to be a surgeon. I know plenty of surgeons who suffer from migraine headaches; that doesn't disqualify them from being surgeons. When they feel one coming on, they go take their medication, take a short break, then get back going. You should discuss this with your Otologist, though.

Hope that helps.

 

[B02]

How functional are you? In other words does your condition impact your ability to function? Does sleep deprivation make it worse.

Anyone can theoretically become a surgeon, as long as you're mostly functional and can withstand the hours. Wait until you rotate on surgery and other fields and see what impact it has if any.

Currently, I'm functioning at 100%. Sleep deprivation does not seem to affect me. So far, the majority of episodes have occurred around the holidays with changes in diet and environment. During the past two winter vacations, I have had days where I couldn't get out of bed, but that hasn't been the case during the remainder of the year.

You should really discuss this with your Otolaryngologist (Otologist preferably, if you have one). I'm assuming that you follow a low sodium, low caffeine diet and are on Dyazide with some sort of vestibulosuppressant (Meclizine, Valium, etc) for the big spins. Meniere's generally has a self-limiting course; over time the frequency and severity of the spins should plateau, but your hearing will ultimately drop if not treated. If your symptoms are well-controlled with medical management, then you're good to go. If your Meniere's is not responsive to conservative management and is highly symptomatic AND your hearing is serviceable, then you could look at either intratympanic Gentamicin or endolymphatic sac decompression for hearing-preservation treatment. If your hearing drops to beyond salvageable, then a labyrinthectomy would be the best choice. This would sacrifice any remaining hearing in the diseased ear, but the vestibulopathy would be fixed and you could always wear a CROS hearing aid or have a BAHA placed.

So "Does the inherent risk of having an episode make me unfit to be a surgeon? If not, how frequent would episodes need to be before they jeopardized my career?"

No, I don't think the risk of having an episode would make you unfit to be a surgeon. I know plenty of surgeons who suffer from migraine headaches; that doesn't disqualify them from being surgeons. When they feel one coming on, they go take their medication, take a short break, then get back going. You should discuss this with your Otologist, though.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for the reply. Yes, currently my symptoms are well managed with medication except during the holidays, as mentioned above - but this seems to be preventable. I will definitely try to get some more advice from an otolaryngologist (I've moved since being diagnosed, but did get a referral recently).

 

[rigid]

Hey,

I suffer from menieres and am currently in a surgical program. Happy to answer any questions via pm you might have. Mine is well control and I got the all clear from my ent prior to applying