ABSTRACT
Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and acoustically evoked short latency negative response are two non-cochlear responses with probably saccular origin. The present study was conducted to determine the percentage of presence and the relation between these two responses in children with hearing loss. Thirty children with profound congenital sensorineural hearing loss were studied. Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials elicited by tone burst stimuli and acoustically evoked short latency negative response elicited by click stimuli were recorded. Both responses were recorded at air conduction threshold level monaurally via an internal receiver. Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in 53.3% of children and acoustically evoked short latency negative response in 40.0% of cases were recorded. There was a significant correlation between the percentage of recording these two responses [p=0.005]. Gender and the stimulated ear had no effect on the results. In almost half of these disabled children, both vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and acoustically evoked short latency negative response were recorded. This finding may both indicate that hearing loss has no effect on the function of otolith organs in some children and vestibular deficits probably exist along with hearing impairment in others. This finding reiterates the importance of evaluation of vestibular system as part of standard auditory evaluations