Combined Effect of Noise and Neomycin on the Cochlea

Abstract

The study was designed to examine the combined harmful effect of intensive noise and neo-mycin on the cochlea in three groups of guinea pigs; one receiving neomycin alone, one exposed to noise alone, and one exposed to both factors. Electrophysi-ologically and microscopically, the harmful effects were shown, when the two factors were combined, to increase more than predicted by simple addition of the two effects. The correlation between the percentage of destroyed outer hair cells and the micro-phonic potential amplitude loss was calculated.