Predictive value of intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked responses in surgery for conductive hearing losses.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the efficacy of intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAER) in predicting postoperative hearing improvement in surgery for conductive hearing loss.


METHODS
A prospective study of consecutive patients undergoing surgery for conductive hearing loss under general anesthesia by a single surgeon.


METHODS
A tertiary care university affiliated medical center.


METHODS
All patients undergoing surgery for conductive hearing loss by the senior author between June 25, 1993 and March 20, 1995.


METHODS
Pre- and postreconstruction intraoperative BAERs; pre- and postoperative pure tone and speech audiometry.


METHODS
Changes in audiometric pure tone air-conduction thresholds, bone-air gaps (BAG), and speech reception thresholds (SRT), compared with changes in BAER wave five (V) latencies.


RESULTS
A decrease in the wave V latency on the intraoperative BAER correlates significantly with improvement in postoperative pure-tone air-conduction, BAG, and SRT using chi 2 and linear regression analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Improvement in intraoperative BAER correlates with postoperative hearing improvement in surgery for conductive hearing loss done under general anesthesia in our population.
Selesnick
S H
SH
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, NY 10021, USA.
Victor
J D
JD
Tikoo
R K
RK
Eisenman
D J
DJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test; D013201:Stapes Surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome