Perilymph fistula (PLF) can cause symptoms of dizziness, vertigo, and fluctuating hearing. We hypothesized that publications on PLF have decreased in recent years relative to other inner ear disorders with overlapping symptoms.
We performed a Scopus search using the terms “perilymphatic fistula” OR “perilymph fistula,” limited to original studies or reviews involving human subjects published in English before 2022. We noted the senior author's institution, country affiliation, and publishing journal. The Kendall rank correlation coefficient test was used to analyze the trend of each variable over the past 30 years. Using the same search strategy, we compared these data to those from vestibular neuritis (VN), Meniere's disease (MD), superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD), and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).
Six hundred and ninety-eight PLF publications were returned. The top publishing country was the United States (
The absence of diagnostic criteria for PLF may hinder its appeal to researchers as similar syndromes have had diagnostic consensus documents set forth. Given the greater number of cases with inciting insults, efforts to define a diagnostic criterion should focus on this subtype.