[Assessment of hearing in children with infantile cerebral palsy. Comparison of psychophysical and electrophysical examination].

Assessment of hearing in children with various types of cerebral palsy was the aim of the study. The audiologic and laryngologic examinations were performed in 32 children with cerebral palsy. Audiologic examinations encompass impedance audiometry, otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE), brainstem evoked audiometry (ABR) and also psychophysical studies depending on possibility of co-operation with children--tonal and speech audiometry. On the ground of psychophysical studies hypacusis was recognised in 37.5% of children. In 25% of cases tonal audiometry could not be done because of mental status of the child. Hypacusis was most common in extrapyramidal type of cerebral palsy. Abnormal morphology of ABR was observed in 71.9% of cases, in 18.7% of them it could be explained by the threshold of hearing. There was always lack of stapedial reflex in cases with abnormal morphology of ABR. In some cases auditory neuropathy could be recognised on the basis of audiological examinations. In many cases the discrepancies between psychophysical and objective methods of investigation were observed. Results of hearing examinations in children with cerebral palsy should be evaluated very carefully on the basis of cross checking principle because of observed inconsistencies in audiometric tests.