Association Between Severe-to-profound Hearing Loss and the Balance Function of the Inner Ear

In a healthy ear irrigation with warm and cold water should give rise to an intense sensation of vertigo and involuntary eye movements called nystagmus. This nystagmus can be measured and thereby give an indication of the vestibular function in that ear.

This test measures the vestibular ocular reflex in all six semicircular canals (three in each ear). By performing a fast head thrust in the direction of the canal the eye response can be detected by a high-velocity video camera. A slower response indicates impaired function in that canal.

Utricular and saccular function can be measured by VEMP. Sound is presented in one ear at a time and the evoked myogenic potential in the sternocleidomastoid and the superior oblique muscles can be measured respectively. This gives a measurement of the function of the sacculus (cVEMP) and utriculus (oVEMP).