Electrically Evoked Auditory Brainstem Responses in Children Fitted with Hearing Aids Prior to Cochlear Implantation.

This was a small observational study of 40 children at one hospital, and 2 children were excluded from further analysis. All children had used hearing aids, so there was no comparison group that had not used hearing aids. The outcome was an electrical brainstem response measured during surgery, not speech, language, or everyday hearing performance. Only children with residual hearing and auditory responses to hearing aids were included, so results may not apply to children who never benefited from hearing aids. Hearing loss was progressive, and the children started hearing aids at a mean age of 2.30 ± 1.21 years, which may explain why duration of use did not correlate with the responses. Only 24 children completed pure-tone audiometry, so hearing thresholds were not available for all participants. The authors state that absence of the electrically evoked auditory brainstem response does not necessarily indicate poor cochlear implant outcomes because postoperative training also affects outcomes.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 82201278 and 82271180), Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (Grant 2208085MH231), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grants WK9110000080 and WK9110000128), and Open research Fund of CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases (Grant 2019-4).

Do not conclude that longer hearing aid use improves auditory brainstem function or cochlear implant speech outcomes. The duration of hearing aid use was not correlated with brainstem response thresholds or latencies, and the study did not measure speech outcomes.