Monitoring and predicting ototoxic damage using distortion-product otoacoustic emissions: pediatric case study.

Young children undergoing cisplatin chemotherapy are known to be at risk for progressive sensorineural hearing loss. Early detection of such hearing loss is important for providing management options. However, in ill and/or young children, behavioral audiometry may not be sufficiently precise to detect the early stages of hearing loss. This case illustrates that distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) may be an appropriate cross-check measure to supplement and confirm pediatric behavioral data. Perhaps more importantly, this study suggests that DPOAEs may have the potential to predict the earliest stages of progressive hearing loss before such changes are seen in audiometric thresholds.