gms | German Medical Science

76th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

04.05. - 08.05.2005, Erfurt

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Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials VEMP) as a prognostic criteria in the recovery process after acute unilateral vestibular loss

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  • corresponding author Christian Hamann - ENT Dept., Medical Center, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg
  • Helmut von Specht - ENT Dept., Medical Center, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg
  • Bernd Freigang - ENT Dept., Medical Center, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 76. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie e.V.. Erfurt, 04.-08.05.2005. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2005. Doc05hno491

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2005/05hno126.shtml

Published: September 22, 2005

© 2005 Hamann et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: To diagnose a vestibular neuritis the caloric testing of the horizontal semicircular canal is widely used. In recent year the function of the sacculus could be tested by using the vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP). The aim of this study was to investigate the saccular influence on recovery after unilateral vestibular loss.

Methods: We examined 15 Patients (age: 33 to 67 years, mean: 55 years) with acute vestibular symptoms using caloric testing and VEMP shortly after onset of symptoms and 4 weeks later. All included Patients showed an absent caloric response on one side.

The VEMPs were recorded on the activated M. sternocleidomastoideus (SCM) and averaged over 200 stimuli. Tone bursts (95 dB nHL; 500 Hz; stimulation rate 5 Hz) were used to generate the VEMPs.

Results: Initially 11 Patients showed pos. VEMP and 4 neg. VEMP.

After 4 Weeks in all but 1 patients with initial pos. VEMP a complete recovery of the vestibular function could be demonstrated. But non of patients with neg. VEMP showed a recovery.

Conclusion: If there is no complete unilateral vestibular loss (only horizontal canal involved), the vestibular system will recover quickly. if there is a complete loss (including the sacculus) the chance for recovery is much lower. The VEMP could be useful for prognostic questions.