Degenerative changes in the human vestibular sensory epithelia.

A study of the vestibular end organs from humans of different ages is presented. The inner ears were exposed by microdissection, and the vestibular sensory regions were either sectioned and studied with light or electron microscopy, or prepared and studied with the surface specimen technique. A change, which can be related to aging, is the accumulation of lipofuscin inclusions in sensory and supporting cells, especially pronounced in the type I sensory cell. Changes of the hair bundles, such as disarrangement of cilia, increased fragility of cilia and formation of giant cilia, have also been observed in aged individuals. In three cases there was a history of vestibular disturbance of vertigo. All three cases had shown caloric hypo-reactivity. In two cases, one with a history of herpes zoster oticus and another with a brain stem glioma, no morphological changes which could be attributed to the diseases, were found. The third case showed degeneration of macula utriculi and the lateral and superior cristae, possibly as a result of vascular disturbance.