Abstract
Hearing of eyeball movements has been reported in superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD), but not hearing of eyelid movements. Our main objective was to report the hearing of eyeball and/or eyelid movements in unilateral SSCD. Our secondary objective was to access its specificity to SSCD and discuss the underlying mechanism. Six patients with SSCD who could hear their eyeball and/or eyelid movements were retrospectively reviewed. With the aim of comparisons, eight patients with an enlarged vestibular aqueduct (EVA), who share the same mechanism of an abnormal third window, were questioned on their ability to hear their eyeball and/or eyelid movements. Three patients with SSCD could hear both their eyeball and eyelid movements as a soft low-pitch friction sound. Two patients with SSCD could hear only their eyelid movements, one of whom after the surgery of a traumatic chronic subdural hematoma. The latter remarked that every gently tapping on the skin covering the burr-hole was heard in his dehiscent ear as the sound produced when banging on a drum, in keeping with a direct transmission of the sound to the inner ear via the cerebrospinal fluid. One patient with SSCD, who could hear only his eyeball movements, had other disabling symptoms deserving operation through a middle fossa approach with an immediate relief of his symptoms. None of the eight patients with EVA could hear his/her eyeball or eyelid movements. Hearing of eyeball and/or eyelid movements is highly suggestive of a SSCD and do not seem to occur in EVA. In case of radiological SSCD, clinicians should search for hearing of eyeball and/or eyelid movements providing arguments for a symptomatic dehiscence. The underlying mechanism is discussed particularly the role of a cerebrospinal fluid transmission.
References
Minor LB, Solomon D, Zinreich JS et al (1998) Sound-and/or pressure-induced vertigo due to bone dehiscence of the superior semicircular canal. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 124:249–258
Minor LB (2000) Superior canal dehiscence syndrome. Am J Otol 21:9–19
Schmuziger N, Allum J, Buitrago-Téllez C et al (2006) Incapacitating hypersensitivity to one’s own body sounds due to a dehiscence of bone overlying the superior semicircular canal. A case report. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 263:69–74
Albuquerque W, Bronstein AM (2004) “Doctor, I can hear my eyes”: report of two cases with different mechanisms. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 75:1362–1366
Merchant SN, Rosowski JJ (2004) Conductive hearing loss caused by third-window lesions of the inner ear. Otol Neurotol 29:282–289
Coad M, Lockwood A, Salvi R, Burkard R (2001) Characteristics of patients with gaze-evoked tinnitus. Otol Neurotol 22:650–654
Biggs ND, Ramsden RT (2002) Gaze-evoked tinnitus following acoustic neuroma resection : a deafferentation plasticity phenomenon. Clin Otolaryngol Allied Sci 27:338–343
Donne AJ, Homer JJ, Woodhead CJ (2000) Oculostapedial synkinesis following Bell’s palsy. J Laryngol Otol 114:135–136
Kim P, Fukushima T (1984) Observations on synkinesis in patients with hemifacial spasm. Effect of microvascular decompression and etiological considerations. J Neurosurg 60:821–827
Ohki M, Kato H (2012) Idiopathic tinnitus concomitant with eye closure. Otol Neurotol 33:267–269
Fujiwara K, Furata Y, Fukuda S (2014) Idiopathic oculostapedial synkinesis without history of facial nerve palsy. Otol Neurotol 36:510–512
Perez R, Adelman C, Sohmer H (2011) Bone conduction activation through soft tissues following complete immobilization of the ossicular chain, stapes footplate and roud window. Hear Res 280:82–85
Stenfelt S, Goode RL (2005) Clinically oriented basic science review. Bone-conducted sound: physiological and clinical aspects. Otol Neurotol 26:1245–1261
Tilikete C, Krolak-Salmon P, Truy E, Vighetto A (2004) Pulse-synchronous eye oscillations revealing bone superior canal dehiscence. Ann Neurol 56:556–560
Younge BR, Khabie N, Brey RH, Driscoll CLW (2003) Rotatory nystagmus synchronous with heartbeat: a treatable form of nystagmus. Trans Am Ophthalmol Soc 101:113–118
Bhutta MF (2015) Eye movement autophony in superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome may be caused by trans-dural transmission of extraocular muscle contraction. Int J Audiol 54:61–62
Killer HE, Laeng HR, Flammer J, Groscurth P (2003) Architecture of arachnoid trabeculae, pillars, and septa in the subarachnoid space of the human optic nerve: anatomy and clinical considerations. Br J Ophthalmol 87:777–781
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Funding
The authors declare no funding.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
This is an anonymous retrospective study. For this type of study formal consent is not required.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bertholon, P., Reynard, P., Lelonge, Y. et al. Hearing eyeball and/or eyelid movements on the side of a unilateral superior semicircular canal dehiscence. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 275, 629–635 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-017-4781-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-017-4781-7