6/19/20

Today at work I did 3 ABR (auditory brainstem response) tests.  This is at least a tie for the record, only because my schedule usually doesn't have room for 3, 2 hours tests in one day because of the way things get scheduled.  Anyway, the last case definitely took cake as the most interesting results EVER IN MY 27 year career. 

I normally don't test unsedated adults.  Typically if I do, it is for a neurodiagnositic study, but because MRIs are so good now, ABR aren't typically ordered anymore unless someone has metal in their head and MRI are contra-indicated.  The other reason to schedule an unsedated adult ABR is if you think the person's true thresholds might be better than their admitted thresholds.  This was the last case of my day.  Patient with a cochlear implant on one side.  (FYI...People only get cochlear implants when it is determined that they can't communicate well with hearing aids alone.  (typically severe to profound hearing loss)  I had been asked by the cochlear implant center to fit this patient with a hearing aid to the non-CI side.)

WELL ......................  my patient had a perfectly normal ABR results on the non-CI side and then fantastic word understanding.  I won't go on, but needless to say...that was unexpected!! 

(stock photo...no hummingbirds in the clinic)

If I was still in grad school - this would be the case study to share for sure.  The good news is that this patient has a much better prognosis than the family thought and they can proceed knowing some truth about the situation.