Objective: This study evaluates the prevalence, type, and severity of hearing impairment in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and to analyze audiologic and otologic outcomes in these patients.
Study design: Retrospective analysis of the AudGen Database.
Setting: Tertiary academic referral center.
Patients: Pediatric patients in AudGen Database with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Appropriate audiologic, otologic, and demographic data were recorded.Nine hundred forty patients met inclusion criteria. Hearing loss (HL) was defined as greater than 15 dB HL at any threshold by pure tone or greater than 20 dB HL by soundfield audiometry. Other available otologic and medical conditions were documented.
Results: Of 940 patients, 367 (39%) had hearing loss. Of the 1,629 individual ears with HL, 782 (48%) had conductive, 63 (4%) had sensorineural, 410 (25%) had mixed, and 374 (23%) had unspecified hearing loss. Patients with mixed type 1 hearing loss had significantly worse PTAs.
Interpretation: Hearing loss in CP has a large degree of sensorineural loss, with a predisposition to be bilateral. The severity of hearing loss was correlated with the degree of the motor and neurologic disability in these patients.