Superior Canal Dehiscence

[Kuwaitin08]

Situation- I have been suffering from serious ringing in my ears for roughly the last decade or so along with very sensitive hearing. Among those symptoms, I have a slew of other issues that are currently unimportant to this post but some of my other issues were vertigo and occasional memory loss. After countless trips to the doctors, audiologists and ENT's I was finally diagnosed with tinnitus and hyperacusis.

Claims for disability were filed and after a few battles, I was awarded 10% with hyperacusis and tinnitus combined but I was denied for the vertigo and memory loss.

After a few more years of testing for balance issues and dizziness, Cat Scans and MRI's I now have a diagnoses of superior canal dehiscence. It is a pretty rare condition that is a royal pain in the butt to diagnose but here I am. 

Does anyone know how this is rated? I've read some articles that says it rates similar to Meniere's Disease and Tullio's Syndrome and yet read others that say it rates as simple hearing loss. Luckily I am able to show the onset of symptoms started during my last deployment with medical records so I don't believe it should be an issue to service connect it.

I'm currently in the process of putting together a fully developed claim to submit. I'll be adding all paperwork from all previous submissions for tinnitus, vertigo, hyperacusis and more to hopefully get it squared away. Lord willing it will be a large check coming from a few years of back payments.

Any assistance you could provide would be appreciated.

 

[GBArmy]

Kuwaitin08 Sounds like you have a pretty knarley disability there brother. My guess is they would rate it analigus (spelling?) to Meniere's disease if it had most of the same symptoms ex. dizziness, balance, headaches, etc. But, you can be rated on one disability or several components, but not both ways. Look up CFR 4.87 schedule of ratings diseases of the ear. You need a specialist, not a self diagnosis, that you have a certain disability. Your new diagnosis is hard to come by; make sure you have a strong IMO from your hearing specialist that get your s-c tied in. The VA just won't give out disabilities on less frequently submitted disabilities. A second supporting IMO from another doc is something I would certainly consider for an investment.

[Kuwaitin08]

2 hours ago, GBArmy said:

Kuwaitin08 Sounds like you have a pretty knarley disability there brother. My guess is they would rate it analigus (spelling?) to Meniere's disease if it had most of the same symptoms ex. dizziness, balance, headaches, etc. But, you can be rated on one disability or several components, but not both ways. Look up CFR 4.87 schedule of ratings diseases of the ear. You need a specialist, not a self diagnosis, that you have a certain disability. Your new diagnosis is hard to come by; make sure you have a strong IMO from your hearing specialist that get your s-c tied in. The VA just won't give out disabilities on less frequently submitted disabilities. A second supporting IMO from another doc is something I would certainly consider for an investment.

My diagnosis for superior canal dehiscence was from the VA. Luckily for me, they are also the ones who diagnosed me with tinnitus, balance disorder, Memory loss and hyperacusis. 
 

It is my guess that they will have to admit they misdiagnosed the other stuff as they are all symptoms of my new diagnosis and all Started at the same time. 

 

 

[broncovet]

Of course, I am not qualified to say "your" condition is closer to Meniere's or hearing loss.  

However, you need to review what your audiologists and doc's say.  Given the Vertigo, I would guess Meniere's.  

You just have to fight them.  Have you appealed within a year?  Is it too late?  Are you familiar with the rating criteria for audiology problems?  

[Kuwaitin08]

1 hour ago, broncovet said:

Of course, I am not qualified to say "your" condition is closer to Meniere's or hearing loss.  

However, you need to review what your audiologists and doc's say.  Given the Vertigo, I would guess Meniere's.  

You just have to fight them.  Have you appealed within a year?  Is it too late?  Are you familiar with the rating criteria for audiology problems?  

I’m familiar with audiology ratings and am SC for everything except vertigo. 
 

With the VA’s new diagnoses of my condition, I imagine it’s gonna be a hot mess trying to have the disability folks square it away. Superior Canal Dehiscence wasn’t even discovered until 1998. 
 

I don’t foresee any real battle with getting SC for SCD due to the VA giving the diagnoses and the timeline, I just like to get a general idea on how they rate things. This looks like a hot mess.   

[broncovet]

Try this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/4.87

Vertigo, as the chart shows, is under DC code 6205 and is rated as the chart, above.  

 

[Buck52]

This is a rare diseases   it will have be repaired with surgery, It is unknown why this happens  and normally hereditary

so it maybe hard to prove service connection  unless a Dr will give his medical opinion it is  caused by ot related to your hearing loss

for a secondary condition...if this is ratable  It maybe a High rating  I would think  until you get it surgically repaired.

I read a little about this , it is rare and usually a person can hear sounds a normal person can't...also its normal for people that have this can hear there eyes close  or hear your eyeball move  and hear the inside of the body sounds  ect,,ect,,  I guess with the canal being seperated  it reverses the hearing into your body?

This one is going to be hard to figure out a rating  and he maybe Temporary.  it maybe like a temporary rating when veterans  that have TKR 

(Total Knee Replacement ) if they have a service connection for it   they can get a 100% temp rating until the knees are ok  normally for 1 year after the Surgery

So Sorry you have to go through this.

Good Luck on finding out the rating criteria   ..I can only imagine most of us will  try to find it  to help you better.

Hang In There