A membrane theory with area and shear moduli is used to interpret an experimental configuration used by Zenner et al. [Acta Otolaryngol. 112, 248–253]. In that experiment an outer hair cell is drawn into a tight-fitting glass capillary and a negative pressure is applied to characterize the elasticity of the cell. Various assumptions concerning membrane permeability and wall friction, which cannot readily be evaluated, are needed to interpret the data obtained in that experiment. For this reason only an upper bound of the elastic moduli, corresponding to vanishing wall friction and basal end flow conductance, can be obtained from their experimental design. In this limit, the experimental data obtained by Zenner et al. do not contradict the values of elastic moduli previously determined by internal pressurization of the cell.