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. 2022 Nov 2:13:1017608.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1017608. eCollection 2022.

Vestibular evoked myogenic potential may predict the hearing recovery in patients with unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Min Liang  1   2   3 , Hui Wu  1   2   3 , Jianyong Chen  1   2   3 , Qin Zhang  1   2   3 , Shuna Li  1   2   3 , Guiliang Zheng  1   2   3 , Jingchun He  1   2   3 , Xiangping Chen  1   2   3 , Maoli Duan  4   5 , Jun Yang  1   2   3 , Yulian Jin  1   2   3
Affiliations

Vestibular evoked myogenic potential may predict the hearing recovery in patients with unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Min Liang et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Objective: This study investigates the association between vestibular function and prognosis in patients with unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (UISSNHL).

Design: A retrospective analysis of 64 patients with UISSNHL was performed. Pure tone audiometry and vestibular function tests for otoliths and semicircular canals were performed to assess the influence of vestibular functional status on the outcome of patients with UISSNHL.

Results: Patients with abnormal cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) or ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP) responded less favorably to treatment. In the ineffective group, cVEMP was normal in four patients (6.3%) and oVEMPs in three (4.7%). Meanwhile, cVEMP was abnormal in 32 patients (50.0%) and oVEMP in 33 (51.6%). Better hearing recovery occurred in those with normal cVEMP (33.76 ± 15.07 dB HL improvement) or oVEMP (32.55 ± 19.56 dB HL improvement), but this was not the case in those with normal caloric tests. Patients with abnormalities in both cVEMP and oVEMP were less responsive to treatment and had worse hearing recovery than those with normal results in only one of the two tests.

Conclusion: Abnormal oVEMP and/or cVEMP results indicate poor auditory outcomes in patients with UISSNHL. Patients with impaired otolith organ function are likely to have a larger and more severe pathological change in their inner ear.

Keywords: caloric test; otolith organ; sacculus; unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss; utriculus; vestibular evoked myogenic potential; vestibular function.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP) results of typical cases. (A) cVEMP and oVEMP were elicited from one patient with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) in the left ear. (B) cVEMP and oVEMP waveforms were absent from one patient with SSNHL in the left ear.
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