Imai T, et al. - Researchers examined the influence of inserting an implant into the cochlea on otolith function. They evaluated otolith function in 12 patients with bilateral severe sensorineural hearing loss who had undergone cochlear implantation (CI) surgery via assessing cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP and oVEMP) and linear vestibulo-ocular reflex (lVOR) during eccentric rotation before and after CI. As cVEMP responses were absent in 3 patients before surgery, they were excluded, leaving pre-surgery cVEMP results for 9/12 patients. Observation revealed no deterioration in saccular function, as evaluated by cVEMP, due to CI. Although deterioration in utricular function attributable to CI was evident in oVEMP tests, this finding was not consistent in lVOR tests. A slight deterioration in utricular function attributable to CI is thus noted that is insufficient to cause vertigo or deterioration of lVOR.