Evaluating long-latency auditory evoked potentials in the diagnosis of cortical hearing loss in children

Abstract

In centrally related hearing loss, there is no apparent damage in the auditory system, but the patient is unable to hear sounds. In patients with cortical hearing loss (and in the absence of communication deficit, either total or partial, as in agnosia or aphasia), some attention-related or language-based disordersmay lead to a wrong diagnosis of hearing impairment. The authors present two patients (8 and 11 years old) with no anatomical damage to the ear, the absence of neurological damage or trauma, but immature cortical auditory evoked potentials. Both patients presented a clinical history of multiple diagnoses over several years. Because the most visible symptom was moderate hearing loss, the patients were recurrently referred to audiological testing, with no improvement. This report describes the use of long-latency evoked potentials to determine cases of cortical hearing loss, where hearing impairment is a consequence of underdevelopment at the central nervous system.