Otoacoustic Emissions in Infants and Children

Key Points

• Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are excellent screening tools for detection of hearing loss in newborns
• OAEs are an integral part of the pediatric diagnostic test battery. They can help determine site-of-lesion and can be used as cross-checks against other results from the test battery
• Published literature is available to guide us in using OAEs in screening and diagnostic test batteries

• OAEs are excellent tools for use in identifying hearing loss in a screening situation and as site-of-lesion and cross-check measures in a diagnostic setting
• Abnormal OAE measures, together with normal middle ear measurs and hearing loss, lead us to suspect there is OHC loss
  • In this case, it is reasonable to suspect that the cochlear amplifier is compromised and hearing aids are an appropriate rehabilitation strategy
• Management is more difficult if the OAEs are robust but pure tone and speech audiometry indicate a hearing loss
• These test outcomes, along with acoustic reflex and ABR test results, may be consistent with the diagnosis of ANSD
• If the child has this diagnosis, the approach to rehabilitation is not as clear and may include cochlear implants