Early detection of hearing loss in children with cleft palates by brain-stem auditory response.

The hearing of 23 children with cleft palates was studied at an early age (before 12 months) and before pharyngoplasty using the electrophysiologic method of auditory brain-stem response. Nineteen children showed important degrees of conduction deafness of 50 or 60 dB. Results were compared with those obtained for a group of normal children tested under the same method before age 6 months. No hearing loss was observed in this group. It is concluded that hearing defects appear at an early age in children with cleft palates and are in direct relationship to the malformation. Hypotheses concerning the etiopathogeny of these hearing losses are proposed.