Liaqat Ali, Ayesha Arif.
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) in conductive hearing loss in children.
Pak Paed J Jan ;31(1):25-9.

Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of auditory brainstem response (ABR) for hearing evaluation in children with conductive hearing loss. Design: A prospective study from January 2006 to December 2006. Settings: Department of Paediatric Audiology The Children Hospital & The Institute of Child Health Lahore. Materials & Methods: Auditory brainstem response was carried out in 113 children with conductive hearing loss, in the age range of 25 days to 13 years, using A –EMG 14 multi- sensory evoked potentional system while sedating them with chloral hydrate and latency – intensity relationship was recorded for analysis. The patients with sensorineural and mixed hearing losses were excluded. Then, tympanometry with GSI – 38 Auto Tymp was done to evaluate middle ear functions. Results:- A total of 5777 children visited the hospital, out of which ABR was done in 911 (15.78%) . Among these, 113 (12.40%) children were with conductive hearing loss. 65 (57.52%) were males and 48 (42.48%) were females. 49 (43.36%) patients had mild bilateral conductive hearing loss and 10 (8.85%) had mild unilateral conductive hearing loss whereas 47 (41.59%) had moderate bilateral conductive hearing loss and 7 (6.20%) had moderate unilateral conductive hearing loss. 85 (75.22%) patients had D type, 20 (17.70%) had A type and 8 (7.08%) had E type tympanograms. Among these 113 patients, 77 (68.14%) were with OME, 28 (24.78%) with Down`s Syndrome and 8 (7.08%) with perforation (either bilateral or unilateral). Conclusion:- It is concluded that auditory brainstem response can be reliably used in the detection of conductive hearing impairment and is an efficient method for threshold estimation in children.

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