[The evaluation of the hearing function in the premature infants with intrauterine growth retardation during the third and sixth months of life by recording auditory steady-state response].

The objective of the present work was to study the function of the retrocochlear auditory pathway in the premature infants with intrauterine growth retardation (IGR) in comparison to that of the normotrophics of a similar gestational age during the third and sixth months of life by recording auditory steady-state responses (ASSR). The audiological examination by the method of auditory steady-state response (ASSR) involved 127 children at the 3d month of life and in 97 children at the 6th month of life. It was shown that the ASSR thresholds at certain frequencies during the 3d and 6th months of life of the children born after the 32d week of pregnancy were significantly higher than in the children born after 32 weeks gestation. The comparison of the two objective audiological methods, viz. distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) and ASSR, indicates that both should be used to evaluate the hearing function during the third and sixth months of life to compensate for the discrepancy between the results obtained by either technique.