1. Anatomy of an Ear Infection Slideshow Pictures
2. Take the Ear Infection Quiz
3. Tinnitus (Ringing of the Ears) Slideshow Pictures

Warning symptoms such as fullness or pressure in one ear may come before an acute episode of the disease, or attacks may occur spontaneously.

• Common symptoms are these:
  
  
  • Fluctuating hearing loss with distortion of sounds and difficulty with speech discrimination
    
    
  • Ringing in the affected ear (tinnitus)
    
    
  • A sense of the room spinning (vertigo)
    
    
  • A cold sweat, nausea, and vomiting, or generalized weakness during the attack
  
  
• The episodes are unpredictable and usually last from 1 hour to a few hours, depending on the severity of the disease.
  
  
• Recurrence of the attacks is a cardinal feature of Ménière disease. Typically the attacks are few, but the usual pattern of Ménière disease is increasing frequency and severity of the symptoms. The disease can be very disabling as the frequency and severity of the attacks increases.
  
  
• Early in the disease, the symptoms usually go away in several hours, but hearing loss may take a day or more to return to normal. Hearing loss can become permanent and, due to changes in the middle ear, may lead to intolerance of any loud noises.

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