[Ototoxicity].

Ototoxic drugs, the best known of which are aminoglucoside antibiotics, can cause irreversible lesions in the ciliate cells of the organ of Corti and the maculae and crests of the vestibular apparatus. The cellular lesion is linked to the formation of complex substances between the ototoxic drug and the polyphospho-inositides of the cellular membrane. Auditory and vestibular monitoring must be ensured permanently throughout the use of such drugs, especially in the presence of risk factors. The lesions induced experimentally in animals having studied by electrophysiological methods, with recordings of the cochlear and brainstem potentials, and by histological methods with the technique of surface preparation of the organ of Corti, and by electron microscopy.