ABSTRACT
Over 5% of the world’s population – 360 million people – has disabling hearing loss (328 million adults and 32 million children). Early diagnosis of hearing loss in children and providing hearing devices, including cochlear implants helps to develop speech, language, and listening skills needed for oral communication. Because of this reason, identifying children early with accurate hearing assessment in children is crucial. The aim of this study was to determine advantage of auditory steady-state response testing in comparing ABR and ASSR thresholds in children with severe hearing loss.Totally 21 children, 8 female and 13 males, aged between 18 and 46 months were included to this study.Mean age was 26 months. All the children underwent otoscopy and ABR before the measurement ofASSR thresholds. ABR and ASSR threshold measurements were performed by different physicians.They were performed in a quiet room, where sound level is less than 50 dB. Each child was asleep by nature during the test. Pearson’s correlation test have been used to evaluate correlation of thehearing thresholds of ABR and ASSR.The hearing thresholds in ABR correlated well with the threshold obtained with ASSR (Pearson’scorrelation coefficient (0.231) is significant at the 0.01 level). In addition; in patients, where the thresholds for ABR were not measurable, it could be found in ASSR tests. If there is not any residual hearing for subjects, both tests resulted with no response.Based on these findings, both ABR and ASSR techniques may be used to provide an estimate of hearing sensitivity in children, but ASSR is a more valuable test than ABR. Determining thresholds for 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz is very important. Identifying children early with accurate hearing assessment leads to earlier fitting of sensory devices, including cochlear implants, which minimizes delays in auditory, speech, and language development.