Otoacoustic emissions recorded at high rates in patients with confirmed acoustic neuromas

Otoacoustic emission testing was carried out on 39 patients with confirmed acoustic neuromas, and satisfactory emissions were recorded from the neuroma ear of 59% of them. A comparison of the patients with and without emissions showed no significant differences in low-frequency or high-frequency hearing loss, optimum speech discrimination score, or canal paresis in the affected ear between the two groups. Emissions were recorded at stimulus rates up to 5,000 clicks/s by using the maximum length sequence (MLS) technique. The decrease in the emission amplitude with increase in click rate (rate suppression) was significantly less than the amount that would be expected from normal subjects for several of the neuroma patients. However, one patient showed normal suppression despite having a large neuroma and no measurable hearing. This would suggest that efferent suppression may not be the only mechanism involved.