title: Auditory brainstem responses in infants and children with anoxic brain damage due to near-suffocation or near-drowning.
abstract: We studied auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) of sixteen infants and children with brain damage after anoxic accidents due to near-suffocation or near-drowning. The patients manifested cerebral palsy, mental retardation and/or epilepsy and showed poor responses in the behavioral audiometry. Auditory brainstem responses were abnormal in five of the patients in the near-drowning group (waves I, II and III only were present in three patients and the amplitudes of waves IV and V were low in two patients) but normal in most of the patients in the near-suffocation group. This difference in the ABRs between the two groups suggest that in infants and children anoxic brain damage due to near-drowning might involve not only the cerebral cortex and subcortical white matter but also the upper brainstem and midbrain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaga
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ichimura
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kitazumi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kodama
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tamai
mesh_terms: D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004332:Drowning; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D002534:Hypoxia, Brain / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015701:Near Drowning; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity