Sometime back my aunt, aged 55, suffered from sudden heavy vomiting combined with acute unconsciousness, severe vertigo and headache. She was admitted to the hospital and treated for 3 days to calm the symptons. Suspecting it as a brain stroke, the doctor ordered brain MRI. The report came out normal with no siginificant issues. However there were few minor scars in the brain, that we were told as age related.

At the time she was vomiting, she suffered sudden hearing loss in her left ear. Later we went to a ENT specialist to get the ear checked. After listening to all the symptoms she went through, the doctor suspected it as a Minere's disease, and did Audiogram test to narrow it. After viewing the hearing loss pattern, he ruled out the Minieres disease.

Later she was given a Caloric reflex test. She did not respond at all, when the doctor put in ice-cold water in he left ear. No movement, nothing. Then the doctor concluded, the auditory nerves in her ear got damaged and suggested she will need a hearing aid, to compensate the loss she is experiencing.

Recently we consulted another ENT specialist. He suggested there is no need for hearing aid as the eardrum is perfectly fine. His suspicion is that, since the hearing loss happened at the time of vomiting, there could have been some vomiting deposits left in the nerves and that is causing this hearing loss. He suggests to undergo a small surgery, where in he will make a small incision on the back of the ear, check and clean the vomiting deposits if any. And during this time he will also check for the brittleness of the bone, and if it is brittle, he will replace it with plastic bone.

Now we are little bit skeptical about this new theory. Is that possible at all? Moreover, we were told that failure of caloric reflex test is an indication of nerve damage. In that case, how would this surgery help her? The doctor says its a minor surgery and will only take couple of hours. Will there be any harm in just trying it out?

I really appreciate your advise on this.