Dose-related vestibular and cochlear effects of transtympanic gentamicin.

Abstract

Our results suggest that in the gerbil, gentamicin is ototoxic but not selectively vestibulotoxic. In general, increasing the number of transtympanic injections increases the damage to sensory hair cells in both the posterior crista and the cochlea. A variation in interanimal susceptibility to ototoxic effects exists, but the amount of damage is consistent in both cochlear and vestibular hair cells from the same animal.