Auditory brain stem response (ABR) in unilateral hearing loss

Abstract

Auditory brain stem responses (ABRs) wee reported with two groups of patients with confirmed and suspected unilateral hearing loss. Evidence of acoustic crossover in click stimuli when the difference in click thresholds for the two ears exceeds approximately 60 db is presented. In such a circumstance, the ABR presumably elicited from the test ear can, in fact, be a reflection of a crossover response from the non-test ear. In clinical practice, appropriate contralateral ear masking should be employed when ABR audiometry is carried out with infants and adults with suspected unilateral hearing loss.