The clinical evaluation of hearing loss in adult patients is usually performed by perceptual
assessment through audiometer tests. This evaluation requires cooperation of the evaluated
subjects. On the other hand, it is not possible to perform a perceptual audiometer test in
newborns, and due to the need of an early audiological management of deafness in newborns
-with hearing aids or cochlear implants-, modern medicine requires early diagnosis of hearing
loss, preferably before the age of three months. Several electrophysiological clinical tools have
been developed in audiology that allow us to make early diagnosis of hearing loss in those
who are unable to respond an audiometry. The electrophysiological evaluation of the auditory
system includes cochlear potentials, auditory brainstem responses, and cortical auditory
evoked potentials. On the other hand, the electrophysiological evaluation of the vestibular
system includes the cervical and ocular myogenic vestibular potentials (cVEMPs and oVEMPs).
This article also includes a brief description of otoacoustic emissions, which are not an electric
measure of the central nervous system, but are widely used as a diagnostic tool in pediatric
audiology. The physiological advances in the knowledge of the auditory system allowed the
early diagnosis of hearing loss in the newborn. However, none of these electrophysiological
tests replaces the perceptual evaluation of hearing thresholds with audiometric tests.
Olmedo G., D. ., Chiti-Morales, A. ., Córdova J., H. ., & Delano, P. H. . (2016). Evaluación electrofisiológica del sistema auditivo y vestibular . Revista Hospital Clínico Universidad De Chile, 27(4), pp. 287–99. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7996.2016.70851
