The pattern of consonant and vowel errors in patients with conductive and cochlear hearing loss

An analysis was carried out of the pattern of errors in those words which were incorrectly perceived by patients during the course of routine speech audiometric tests using consonant-vowel-consonant words. Responses were examined from 20 patients with conductive hearing loss, and 20 with cochlear hearing loss due to Ménière's disease. Word errors result from misinterpretations of a single consonant in 70% of the conductive group and 56% of the Ménière group. The latter make slightly more errors involving both consonants. Errors in vowels alone are rare in both groups and, even in combination, with one or other consonant, never exceed 25%. Word recognition appears to fail for the same reason in the two groups.