[Hearing evaluation on young children (less than five years old) in an under-equipped center. An adaptation of the Delaroche protocol].

The authors report their experience of audiometric test in childhood (less than fifty years old). It's an adaptation of Delaroche protocol which was first described by the Bordeaux's team. This prospective study has been realized in their works conditions in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) on 75 children under five years of age (average 2,64 years). This protocol is essentially based on: at first, hearing evaluation with acoustic toys; secondly, bone conduction on the vibrator; at the end, air conduction on the head set. The analysis of the results on 75 children shows that there were 35 normal examinations, 5 conductive deafness, 32 sensorineural hearing loss among which 9 partial failures (hearing threshold non evaluated), 3 complete failures (refuse the test). The authors insist on the utility of audiometric tests in early management of hearing loss in young children.