VESTIBULAR FINDINGS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER VESTIBULAR DAMAGE RESULTING FROM STREPTOMYCIN THERAPY

THAT STREPTOMYCIN when administered in daily doses of about 2 Gm. over a period of from two to twelve weeks may cause considerable damage to the vestibular apparatus was reported by Brown and Hinshaw,¹ Hinshaw, Feldman and Pfuetze² and Marden³ in 1946. Fowler and Seligman⁴ made a similar report in 1947.

Brown and Hinshaw expressed doubt as to whether the lesion is in the vestibular end organ or in the brain. In 1947 Skoog⁵ proved that Ménière's syndrome can be produced in a guinea pig by a lesion of the brain stem. It must, therefore, be observed that Ménière's syndrome may follow a lesion of the vestibular nuclei in the brain stem as well as a lesion of the peripheral end organ.

An analysis of the vestibular data obtained on 3 patients treated with streptomycin at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania forms the basis of this paper

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