Brain stem auditory evoked potentials [BAEPS] in patients with chronic renal and chronic hepatic failure

ABSTRACT

This study included 40 subjects divided into 3 groups. Group 1 consisted of 15 uremic patients, group 2 of 15 hepatic patients and group 3 of 10 completely normal control subjects. The brain stem auditory evoked potentials [BAEPs] demonstrated a statistically significant delay in absolute peak latency and in changes which occurred at high repetition rate between the uremic patients, the hepatic patients and the control group. Also, a statistically significant delay in the absolute peak latency and in inter peak latency was demonstrated when the hepatic patients of Child's class B were compared with those of Child's class A. There were no statistically significant changes when the uremic patients with serum creatinine level below 10 mg/dl were compared with those with serum creatinine level above 10 mg/dl. This work suggested that BAEPs can play an early and important role in prediction of metabolic encephalopathy