[A medical-legal question of hearing impairment following vaccination (author's transl)].

Three months following smallpox vaccination, a child was found to have profound sensory deafness. A medical-legal opinion in 1962 found no relationship between vaccination and deafness. However, when subsequent judgement appeal was made, the legality of the initial decision had to be justified. The consequence of the case, supported by available publication, indicated that a close temporal probability between vaccination and postvaccinial cerebral complication was required to justify any further legal claim. This was not considered to be a factor in the present case since the discovery of a goitre in the patient in association with an iodine dysfunction uncovered a Pendred's syndrome as the cause for the patient's hearing loss.