Clinical Application of Evoked Response Audiometry

Summed evoked cortical responses to auditory stimuli were recorded on 128 clinical patients who were unable or unwilling to respond accurately to conventional audiometric techniques. Definable responses were recorded on 90 of 102 children, age 10 and younger. Subjective audiometric thresholds on children old enough to respond tended to be slightly lower than evoked response thresholds. Technically less satisfactory results were obtained in the very young child, but responses were more reliable on children age 2 and older. Evoked response audiometry in older children and adults with nonorganic hearing loss were easily measured and appeared to give an accurate measure of auditory sensitivity. There is considerable difficulty in the interpretation of ERA measures in younger children due to influences on the response waveform of rapid changes in the alerting level. Interpretations of response should be made only after considerable experience in the use of the ERA technique.