Brain stem audiometry: status and clinical applications of click evoked brain stem responses.

Over the past 10 years, numerous reports on click evoked brain stem responses have appeared in both the general otolaryngologic and the audiologic literature. Equipment is now commercially available, is relatively simple to operate, and permits the routine recording of these potentials. The technique is especially useful in the objective establishment of hearing thresholds in the newborn and in adult subjects and appears to be more reliable than the cortical evoked response (AEP). Other uses and applications of the technique, as in the detection of brain stem lesions and acoustic tumors, in coma and brain death, are discussed.