1 research outputs found
Management of children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD)
Introduction: ANSD is a challenging problem.
Objective: To present our experience on management of the children with
ANSD with respect to clinical data.
Methods: This retrospective study included all children younger than 16
years of age who applied to the department between 2005 and 2013 (with
the exception of newborn hearing screening NHS referrals). The data were
derived from pure tone, OAEs and ABR tests, and further medical risk
factors of the subjects were evaluated.
Results: ANSD was recognized in 74 ears of 40 children (B/U: 34/6) among
1952 children with SNHL (2.04\%) detected among 9520 applicants to the
department (0.42\%). The clinical tests revealed that hearing loss
greater than 15 dB was present in both ears of 38 cases. The degree of
hearing loss was profound in 48\% children, severe in 12\% children,
moderate in 28\% children, mild in 10\% children and normal in 5\%
children. ABRs were absent/abnormal in 37/3 ears and CMs were detected
in all. Acoustic reflexes were absent in all ears. Rehabilitation was
managed by CI and hearing aids in 15 and 23 cases, respectively. FM
system was given to two cases displaying normal hearing but poor speech
discrimination in noisy environments.
Conclusion: ANSD is a relatively challenging problem for the audiology
departments because of its various clinical features and difficulties in
management. Our patients with ANSD most commonly displayed profound
hearing loss. The number of overlooked cases may be minimized by
performing ABR and OAE in every case referred with the suspicion of
hearing loss. (C) 2015 Associacao Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia e
Cirurgia Cervico-Facial. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an
open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecornmons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)