Ototoxicity of the anticancer drug cisplatin. An experimental study.

Cisplatin was administered to guinea pigs. Hearing function was tested using ABR, and morphological studies were conducted by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The following findings were made. (1) The susceptibility to cochlear damage by cisplatin was dose dependent. (2) At the same dose, damage was most severe in the lower turns, particularly in the second turn. This tallies with the high tone loss. (3) Mainly the outer hair cells are the site of the damage and the inner hair cells are rarely damaged. (4) The first row of the outer hair cells tend to be more severely damaged. (5) Variation of the stria vascularis was moderate compared with the damage to the organ of Corti. (6) A tendency of recovery was observed in ABR in some animals after they were given 2 mg/kg/day cisplatin intramuscularly consecutively for 8 days.