[Vocals in silence and noise. A simple test of resistance of intelligibility in noisy environment].

We have all noticed that there was no coincidence between the conventional audiometric tests--tonal, vocal, Metz tests--and the degree of impairment of understandability in noisy environments that the patients report. Some of them handle this problem better than these conventional tests suggest, others less well. The aim of this study is to take account of this dominating functional complaint: impairment in noisy conditions, and to assess it in order to follow up its evolution after medical, surgical and prosthetic treatments. The aim of the authors has been to describe an easy examination to be implemented in any ENT surgery fitted with a free-field vocal testing equipment. The results show that this test cas differentiate between "noise-resistant" subjects and those that do not "resist" well. The discussion defines the limitations of this test, which are due to its deliberate simplicity, and the caution required for its psychoacoustic and physiological interpretation. The conclusion confirms its merits, since it can discriminate and help choose more accurate tests--temporal tests, frequency selectiveness charts, twin-ear tests, cognitive AEP.