Electrically Evoked Auditory Brainstem Response over Round Window by Bipolar Stimulation.

Objectives: Auditory brainstem potentials can be elicited by electrical stimulation of the round window (RW). In this technique, extracochlear stimulation is objectively used in the selection of cochlear implant (CI) candidates to avoid cochlear damage. However, until now, its use is limited due to the large artifacts generated by electrical stimulation.

One-Year Results for Patients with Unilateral Hearing Loss and Accompanying Severe Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Treated with a Cochlear Implant.

Objective: To show that patients with unilateral hearing loss (UHL), with one ear fulfilling cochlear implant (CI) indication criteria, and an additional severe tinnitus handicap can be treated effectively with a CI.

Method: A prospective multi-centre study was conducted in five Spanish centres. Sixteen adult patients with UHL and a mean Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score of at least 58 were implanted.

Response Over Time of Vertigo Spells to Intratympanic Dexamethasone Treatment in Meniere's Disease Patients.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness and response over time of intratympanic dexamethasone on the symptoms of Meniere's disease.

Materials And Methods: We performed a matched cohort study of 24 patients with Meniere's disease who were unresponsive to initial treatment and underwent 3 sessions of weekly intratympanic dexamethasone injections using a concentration of 16 mg/mL and 24 matched controls with the same characteristics with regard to vertigo spells.

Results: Compared with control subjects, intratympanic dexamethasone injections resulted in a decrease in the frequency of vertigo spells in the first 6-month period.

Increased Velocity Storage in Subjects with Meniere's Disease.

Objective: Velocity storage mechanism is a multisensory rotation estimator; it compensates for errors in the information provided by the peripheral vestibular organs by means of an adjustment in the duration of the vestibular signal. The aim of this study was to determine the activity of the velocity storage mechanism in the presence of a labyrinthine disorder, using galvanic vestibular stimulation to cause direct activation of the vestibular afferent neurons.

Materials And Methods: Forty-one subjects with definite Meniere's disease (MD) and 36 healthy volunteers were evaluated using a 20-s galvanic vestibular stimulation.

Malformation of the eighth cranial nerve in children.

Introduction And Objectives: Prevalence of congenital sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is approximately 1.5-6 in every 1,000 newborns. Dysfunction of the auditory nerve (auditory neuropathy) may be involved in up to 1%-10% of cases; hearing losses because of vestibulocochlear nerve (VCN) aplasia are less frequent.

The role of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in cholesteatoma diagnosis and follow-up. Study with the diffusion PROPELLER technique.

Introduction And Objectives: The diagnosis of cholesteatoma is based on clinical evaluation and computed tomography. New non-echo-planar diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, without intravenous contrast, are capable of differentiating cholesteatoma from inflammatory tissue, cholesterol granuloma and granulation tissues. The technique is very helpful in differential diagnosis of cholesteatoma, mainly after canal wall-up tympanoplasty surgery, to avoid routine second-look surgery in these patients.

[Peripheral vertigo classification of the Otoneurology Committee of the Spanish Otorhinolaryngology Society: diagnostic agreement and update (version 2-2011)].

Introduction: In 2008, the Otoneurology committee of the SEORL-PCF published a classification of peripheral vertigo, based on clinical criteria. The objective of this study was to validate this classification through analysing the diagnostic agreement among several medical assessors.

Methods: Seven medical assessors, all with clinical experience, from 6 different hospitals, participated in the study.

Recurrent meningitis associated with Duane syndrome type I.

We present the case of a 17-month-old male patient with a bilateral Duane syndrome type 1 associated to unilateral cochleovestibular dysplasia, perilymphatic fistula and recurrent meningitis. Diagnosis was carried out by MRI and CT scan. His management and treatment are described, as well as the postoperative evolution.

[Clinical symptoms of equilibrium disorders in patients with whiplash syndrome].

Introduction And Objective: There are many entities that cause equilibrium disorders. Whiplash syndrome is becoming an important entity as a trigger of equilibrium disorders because of an increase in traffic accidents. There are many hypotheses on the generation of vertigo and dizziness in whiplash syndrome.

[How middle-ear implants work].

Middle-ear implants consist of a microphone, an audioprocessor, a battery, a receiver and a transducer. Transducers can be classified in three groups: piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electromechanical. The middle ear transducer (MET) system (Otologics) is composed of an outer part that uses a multichannel digital acoustic signal processing system that transforms this acoustic signal into an electromagnetic stimulus.

[Contribution of the vestibular evoked myogenic potentials to the study of the vestibular neuritis].

Introduction: Until recently, the only tests available to provide information about vestibular function were caloric and kinetic tests, which only give us information about the external semicircular canal and the superior vestibular nerve. In recent years the development of vestibular evoked myogenic potentials has allowed us to assess the saccule and the inferior vestibular nerve. Our aim is, by studying the caloric test results as well as the vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in patients with Vestibular Neuritis, to determine whether they have involvement of the superior, inferior or both vestibular nerves.