Recovery of ocular and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials after treatment of inner ear diseases

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the clinical value of ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP) and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) for monitoring the rehabilitation of vestibular function in patients treated for peripheral vertigo.

Materials and methods: Fifteen patients who had been diagnosed with peripheral vertigo and showed no VEMP response on the affected side but exhibited symptom alleviation and VEMP responses after therapies were retrospectively enrolled. We analyzed the restoration and parameters of their VEMP response.

Results: After treatment, six patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss showed VEMP recovery, including two with both oVEMP and cVEMP recovery, three with oVEMP recovery only, and one with cVEMP recovery only. Two patients with Meniere’s disease (MD) showed cVEMP recovery, while the other three MD patients showed oVEMP recovery. Three patients with herpes zoster oticus exhibited cVEMP recovery. One patient with vestibular neuritis exhibited cVEMP recovery. Among the patients with cVEMP and/or oVEMP restoration, most patients presented normal VEMP parameters; however, some patients showed abnormal VEMP parameters after treatment.

Conclusion: Combined oVEMP and cVEMP are objective tools for assessing vestibular otolithic end organ function during dynamic functional recovery from vestibular diseases.

Keywords:

• Vertigo
• ocular VEMP
• cervical VEMP
• VEMP recovery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81600809 and 81670945), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant Nos. 2018JQ8001 and 2017 KW-048), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. xjj2018279).