Vestibular Tests: VNG

• Transcript

  Vestibular Tests: VNG

  VNG stands for Videonystagmography and this is a traditional test of vestibular function that has been around for many years. Typically during VNG testing we’ll measure the ocular motor system or how well the brain is doing at coordinating eye movement. So for the test the patients will wear goggles that have cameras in them and then their job during the ocular motor portion of the test is to watch a light on the wall moving different directions. So we measure how well patients can look to the left and to the right can monitor a dot that swings back and forth and keep your eyes that a dot that randomly shows up on the light bar.

  The most well-known portion of the VNG test is the caloric test and this is the last part of the VNG and this is where the patient lays down with the goggles on so we are monitoring their eye movements and then we put water in their ears. When the water goes into their ears that becomes a stimulus for the balance center and then when the balance center is stimulated people get the sensation that they are moving so some people become dizzy during that portion of the test.

  When the caloric test is not well tolerated we will immediately stop testing and generally there are other tests that we can do to see how well the balance center is functioning.