The influence of hearing loss emerging in the prelingual period on the vestibular labyrinth

Hearing is defined as the process of picking up sound waves from outside in our ears to the point where they are perceived by our headquarters. Whatever the level of hearing loss is, it prevents individual compliance with collecting and leads to personal and social problems. In the majority of cases with hearing loss, inner ear anomalies are determined at various grades by radiological imaging methods. The relationship between peripheral auditory and vestibular systems plays an important role in vestibular disorders seen in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) are an electrophysiological test method that measures the reflex arc that results in stimulation of peripheral vestibular organs. This test method, which is used to assess the integrity of the vestibular system, is called cervical VEMP (cVEMP) if the reflex arc response is measured from the neck muscles, and ocular VEMP (oVEMP) if measured from the extraocular muscles. The aim of this study is to compare the integrity of the vestibular system with the normal hearing individuals in prelingual hearing impaired individuals. For this purpose, oVEMP and cVEMP tests were applied to evaluate the vestibular system integrity of the hearing impaired individuals participating in the research. This study was carried out in the audiology clinic of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey, with a sensorineural prelingual hearing-loss volunteer from 18 to 60 years of age living in Ankara and member in the Anatolian Association of the Deaf. The study included 20 women (76.9%) and 6 men (23.1%) in the study group; The control group consisted of 52 men, 19 men (73.1%) and 7 men (26.9%). After the otorhinolaryngological examination of the subjects participating in the study, the stories were taken and then cVEMP and oVEMP tests were performed to evaluate the integrity of the vestibular system and the results were compared with the results of the control group. Tests have been passed on to the participant since the participant who is the sign language user has been told by the sign language. When the groups were compared in terms of right - left ears, no statistically significant difference was found in terms of wave latencies and amplitudes. It was observed that there was a difference between the study group and the control group when oVEMP and cVEMP responses were compared and the response percentage was higher in the control group. There was also a statistically significant difference between the groups for oVEMP amplitude and cVEMP P1 latency (p ≤ 0.05). The findings are expected to be used in future otorhinolaryngology clinics, special education studies and equilibrium laboratories. Key words: Prelingual, oVEMPs and cVEMPs, Ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP), cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP), vestibular system, vestibular system integrity, vestibular organs, sensorineural hearing loss, sign language.