Problems in Wearing Hearing Aid for Young Children by Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry

Eum, Ji Yon; Kim, Young Wook

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2001;6(1): 1-14.

Ji Yon Eum^` , and Young Wook Kim^`

엄지연(Ji Yon Eum)| 김영욱(Young Wook Kim)

ABSTRACT

Accurate audiometry is essential when providing children with proper hearing aids . But in the case of audiometry for infant s , objective test s have been exclusively used becau se it s impossible to do a subjective test reliably . T oday in many hospitals otoadmittance audiometry and otoacoustic emissions for determining hearing los s are used. T he degree of hearing loss is determinded after the test of brain stem evoked response audiometry. But the frequency range is limited to the high frequency range from 2000 Hz to 4000 Hz. We mu st determine the frequency threshold for each frequency tested in 250- 6000 Hz for hearing aid prescription. We usually get gains by gues sing if you use only the result s of brainstem evoked respon se audiometry for fitting a hearing aid. However , when worn ahearing aid, the resrult s are the sound distortion and the reduction of residual hearing due to the over - gain . The subject s of the present study are infant s (under 4 year s ) who are considered to have severe hearing loss when tested by brain stem evoked response au - diometry. T hey were divided to two groups. The hearing aids of group 1 subject s were prescribed on the basis of the result s of brain stem evoked respon se audiometry, and the hearing aids of group 2 subject s were prescribed on the basis of the result s of play audiometry which was administered one month after the test of brain stem evoked res - ponse audiometry . After wearing the hearing aids for 2- 3 weeks , both groups hearing aids were fitted again in light of the result s of the follow- up play audiometry. The result s showed that the gain of hearing aid determined only on basis of the result s of brainstem evoked response audiometry was less valid than the gain determined on the basis of the result s of play audiometry in addition to the brainstem evoked respon se audiometry . T he implication of the study is that it seems necessary that we test the hearing impairment s by both play audiometry and an objective audiometry , particularly in the case of infant s under 4 years of age.