The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) was studied using high-acceleration, rapid, passive head turns in patients with unilateral Meniere's disease and in normal controls. All patients had been treated for their condition with intratympanic instillation of gentamicin to eliminate vestibular function on one side. All of the patients had no response to ice-water caloric irrigation of the lesioned side. Previous reports have indicated that when VOR performance is measured in this fashion following unilateral surgical ablation of one labyrinth, the gain is reduced to approximately 0.25 during rotation towards the lesioned side and is normal during rotations towards the healthy side. Such was not the case following gentamicin lesions. Patients exhibited a wide range of responses, with ipsilesional gains ranging from 0.26 to 0.83, near normal values. Such results, in the face of absent ice-water caloric responses, indicate considerable preservation of high-frequency VOR function in many gentamicin-treated patients. As gentamicin might be expected to spare many type II hair cells, these results support the contention that the high-frequency VOR is driven predominantly by regularly discharging afferents.