The International Tinnitus Journal

Assessment of Hearing in Children with Cerebral Palsy

The objective of this study is to identify the prevalence and nature of auditory analyzer pathology in children with different forms of infant cerebral palsy by recording otoacoustic emission and recording short latency brainstem auditory evoked potentials. The subject group consisted of 75 children, 40 (53%) males and 35 (47%) were females, ranging from 3 to 14 years of age with a confirmed diagnosis of cerebral palsy on the basis of a psycho-neurological hospital in Tashkent. (Uzbekistan). The examination of children was carried out by the following methods: clinical examination of patients (general and otorhinolaryngological) and functional research methods of the auditory analyzer. All children underwent acoustic impedancemetry, including tympanometry with determination of the type of tympanogram and acoustic reflex. The data obtained revealed a bilateral lesion of the peripheral part of the auditory analyzer. Beilateral sensorineural hearing loss was detected in 21 - I - II degree, in 12 - III degree and in 15 - IV degree. Marked changes in the main parameters of BAEP were detected in the study of the stem structures of the auditory analyzer in children with cerebral palsy. Thus, disorganization, configuration disturbances of the component composition (I, III, V) were noted. Thus, the study revealed a disorder of auditory function by sound-detecting type and justified the need for hearing correction in these children. Evaluation of auditory function made it possible to determine the level of auditory analyzer injury and localization of the process from the results of a complex, objective examination.