현훈을 동반하지 않은 돌발성 난청에서 전정유발근전위의 임상적 의의

Background: We investigated saccular damage in sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients without vertigo through vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP). Methods: Thirty patients (male: 9, female: 21) with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL) without vertigo were enrolled in this study. We identified VEMP in patients with ISSHL and analyzed the association of VEMP with initial hearing threshold, each threshold according to frequency, the type of audiogram, and the hearing recovery. Results: Among thirty patients, twenty six patients (80.7%) showed normal VEMP wave. Patients with hearing loss less than 55 dB showed significantly higher abnormal VEMP rates than the patients with 55 dB or more with frequencies at 250 and 1,000 Hz (p< 0.05). According to the type of audiogram, and the hearing recovery, we found no significant differences. Conclusions: Most of sudden idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss patients without vertigo showed normal VEMP wave. In particular cases with a less than 55 dB hearing loss with a frequency at 250 or 1,000 Hz could have a high rate of abnormal VEMP. These findings suggest that these patients are associated with subclinical disturbances of the vestibular system especially of the saccule and may develop Meniere disease later. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2009;20:201–206)