Importance of Auditory Brainstem Evoked Potentials in the Diagnosis of Hearing Loss

Abstract

Introduction: Brainstem auditory evoked potentials are voltage fluctuations over time, which occur in response to sound stimuli of certain characteristics and which represent the activation of neural subpopulations at different levels of the auditory pathway, from the cochlea to the cortex, which are captured by surface electrodes placed at specific points on the head.

Objective: To deepen the importance of brainstem auditory evoked potentials in the diagnosis of hearing loss.

Methods: A bibliographic review was carried out on the importance of brainstem auditory evoked potentials for the diagnosis of hearing deficit. To this purpose, bibliographies were consulted via the internet and classic literature of the specialty.

Information analysis and synthesis: One of the most widespread clinical applications of auditory evoked potentials has been the aforementioned use as a functional indicator for the objective evaluation of hearing. Difficulties in using the psychophysical techniques of conventional audiometric examination in uncooperative patients, as newborns and young children, have motivated the search for objective physiological methods to assess hearing.

Conclusions: The application of evoked potentials is vital for auditory diagnosis, since it is an objective and effective method, which allows evaluating hearing at the audiological and neurological level thanks to the different existing types, which present a variety of stimuli.