Cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials in vestibular neuritis: comparison between air- and bone-conducted stimulation

To clarify the changes of cervical (cVEMP) and ocular (oVEMP) vestibular evoked myogenic potentials induced by air-conducted sound (ACS) and bone-conducted vibration (BCV) in patients with vestibular neuritis (VN), patients with VN (n = 30) and normal controls (n = 45) underwent recording of cVEMP and oVEMP in response to ACS (1,000 Hz, 5 ms, tone bursts) and BCV (500 Hz, short tone burst). Patients with VN showed a high proportion of oVEMP abnormalities in response to both ACS (80.0 %) and BCV at the forehead (Fz, 73.3 %) or the mastoid (76.7 %). In contrast, cVEMPs were mostly normal with both ACS and BCV in the patients. The dissociations in the abnormalities of cVEMP and oVEMP induced by ACS and BCV at the mastoids and at the forehead in patients with VN suggest that oVEMP reflects functions of the superior vestibular nerve and most likely the utricular function. The results of our study suggest that oVEMP induced by either ACS or BCV appears to depend on integrity of the superior vestibular nerve, possibly due to the utricular afferents travelling in it. In contrast, cVEMP elicited by either ACS or BCV may reflect function of the saccular afferents running in the inferior vestibular nerve.