Electric response audiometry in young children before cochlear implantation: a short latency component

Evaluation of a short latency component (SLC) observed in profoundly deaf young children during recordings of the auditory brain stem response (ABR) before cochlear implantation.

Seventy young children (ages 2 to 11 yr) were investigated as part of their routine audiologic and diagnostic assessment, before cochlear implantation. The ABR was evoked using click stimuli and tone pips (500 Hz and 1 kHz) at intensity levels up to 105 dB nHL. The incidence of the SLC arising at a latency of 3 msec with high level click stimuli, in addition to residual ABR waves, was assessed.

An SLC was observed in a total of 18 of the 70 children investigated. It was present in 15 out of 31 congenitally deaf children (48%) compared with only 2 out of 33 children deafened after meningitis (6%). A chi-squared test employing a 2 x 2 contingency table shows that this dependency on etiology of deafness is highly statistically significant (p < 0.001). The presence of the SLC in the congenitally deaf children is related to age at the time of the Electric Response Audiometry test and is more likely to be observed in the younger child (p < 0.01).

Interpretation of the ABR in profoundly deaf children should take into consideration the possible presence of the SLC. An evoked potential arising from stimulation of the vestibular system, particularly the vestibular nuclei, is proposed as a likely origin for this component. Damage to sensory cells in the vestibular portion of the labyrinth might explain why an SLC is seen rarely in cases of deafness after meningitis.