Cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (c-VEMPs) Assessment in Workers with Occupational Acoustic Trauma

It’s well known the noise effect relates to the hearing function while there are a very few studies connected to the vestibular disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate c-VEMPs responses in workers with noise induced hearing loss and exposed to noise in order to prove the possibility of damage in the vestibular via. We examined 60 workers with noise induced hearing loss and 30 office employees. The results highlight an increased latency and a shorter amplitude in workers exposed to noise. We found normal values in the control group. Therefore our data show vestibular damages in workers exposed to noise, thus proving that c-VEMPs represent a simple and not invasive method to identify a possible vestibular dysfunction.