An evaluation of the use of the auditory brain-stem electric response test in paediatric audiological assessment

A retrospective study was made of hearing thresholds determined by the click-evoked Brain Stem Electric Response (BSER) and behavioural tests of hearing in 200 babies and children. BSER thresholds were found to agree within 20 dB with high frequency hearing levels in 89 out of 99 children who performed free-field tests of hearing and in 87% of ears in children tested with pure-tone audiometry. In 61 children who were too young or too handicapped to perform on behavioural tests of hearing, a hearing loss was indicated by BSER in 48 out of 121 ears. The majority of these losses occurred in the handicapped group. The advantages and limitations of behavioural tests and BSER are discussed.