[Recording of vestibular myogenic evoked potentials in patients with disturbed inner function]

In this study, we measured VEMP in patients with disturbed function of inner ear. We studied 4 patients with unilateral sensorineural deafness and normal excitability of vestibular organs; 6 persons with unilateral weakness of vestibular function and 10 healthy subjects. We found that in patients with unilateral weakness of vestibular function VEMPs had short latencies and diminished amplitudes whereas in patients with unilateral deafness VEMPs were unchanged. These data strongly suggested that VEMPs were generated by stimulation of vestibular and not cochlear part of inner ear-sacculus. Our data confirm that VEMPs are a highly objective technique, simple, secure and comfortable for patients to assess the vestibulo-spinal connections.