title: Predictive value of intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked responses in surgery for conductive hearing losses.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, NY 10021, USA.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Selesnick
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Victor
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Tikoo
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Eisenman
mesh_terms: 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