[The study of evoked otoacoustic emissions in children]

We evaluated the auditory system of 41 children by means of evoked otoacoustic emission. The children were selected from a school population and range in age from 3 to 16 years. No hearing problems were detected prior to this study. The stimulus was a nonlinear click with a frequency of 21/s. All the children but one had echo sizes over 9.72 dB SPL. The mean echo size was 13.23 dB SPL with a reproducibility of 74.81%. Average echo sizes for each frequency are presented. There were no significant differences in the series with respect to the adult comparative pattern used except for the child with an unknown perceptive disorder. We conclude that the test is reliable and highly sensitive, and that it detects small conductive and sensory hearing losses. It is fast, easy, painless and does not require sedation, making it particularly interesting for hearing assessments in childhood.