[Short latency somatosensory evoked potentials and brainstem auditory evoked potentials in patients with head trauma]

The SSEPs in 115 patients with head trauma were analysed by NT+ W value, da, db and b/a methods. The results revealed that the abnormal rates of the SSEPs were 94.8%. The pathological bases resulting in it were the direct and/or indirect lesion on the somatosensory pathway. The SSEPs recorded six months after the trauma indicated that the electric activities of neurons in some of the patients were still abnormal although they recovered well. The patients complicated with traumatic lesion of acoustic nerve, blood clots in external ear canal and pre-existing hearing loss had abnormal BAEPs that could not be used in diagnosing brainstem lesion. The patients without these complications in whom BAEPs were abnormal had an unfavourable outcome. The SSEPs and BAEPs simultaneously recorded could aid localization of the injury in the brain and enable discovery of the fact that the rigidity after decortication or decerebration is a result of severe injury of the cerebral hemisphere.