Otoacoustic emissions and brainstem auditory evoked potentials in children with neurological afflictions.

Findings are reported for evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAEs) recorded from 22 children with neurological afflictions, whose brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) were pathological on at least one side (41 ears explored). Our results confirmed that EOAEs are always present in children and infants having normal BAEPs. Absence of EOAE (n = 22) was almost always related to middle ear or cochlear damage with BAEPs indicating diagnoses, respectively, of transmission damage (n = 7) or endocochlear damage (n = 16). Conversely, for BAEP diagnoses of retrocochlear damage (n = 12), EOAEs were always present. EOAEs associated with BAEPs, therefore, appear to offer a well-adapted technique for precise etiological diagnosis of childhood hearing loss. When no wave is identifiable by BAEP recording, EOAE presence indicates retrocochlear damage.