[The effect of the upper cervical spine on hearing ability].

A chronic irritation in the upper cervical column of 10 rabbits by implantation of a wire string was performed. The vestibular and auditory functions were investigated by electronystagmography and by BERA before and several times after the operation. A distinct increase of the proprioceptive cervical nystagmus was found already in the first postoperative week. In contrary to the ENG findings the BERA did not show any alteration of the both threshold and latency values. These results indicate that the existence of the proprioceptive cervical hearing loss is very doubtful.