To the Editor:I performed the operation described by Fick in six cases. I applied the technical details recommended by him, that is, not to create a fenestra in the footplate, because there is the possibility of not being able to perforate the endolymphatic sac, as it collapses against the medial wall of "the labyrinth" (Arch Otolaryng19:449, 1964), but to perforate "through the footplate approximately 2 mm deep," and in this way puncture the saccule, whose hydropic dilatation has brought it much nearer to the medial wall of the footplate than in the normal subject. What I did not conform to the Fick technique was the "suction of fluid from the labyrinth" because I feared I might provoke too much brisk and irreversible collapse of the endolymphatic walls. In all the six cases I operated on, a very severe impairment of hearing occurred 10-12 hours after the operation. Vertigo