Abstract
Sedation is widely used for auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing for infants or young children who are unable to sleep or remain adequately quiet for testing. Because chloral hydrate is no longer readily available, dexmedetomidine has been proposed as an alternative medicinal agent to achieve moderate levels of sedation without risk of respiratory depression. The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of dexmedetomidine in terms of the completeness of the audiologic data obtained in achieving moderate levels of sedation for auditory brainstem response testing. A retrospective chart review was conducted on ninety-nine patients at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Participants were administered either chloral hydrate or dexmedetomidine prior to ABR testing. Effectiveness was defined as having obtained thresholds for click and tone burst stimuli centered at 500, 2000, and 4000 Hz for both ears. Complete audiological data were obtained on 92.2% of patients sedated with dexmedetomidine whereas complete audiological data were obtained on 91% of patients sedated with choral hydrate in a period prior to the use of dexmedetomidine. It was concluded that dexmedetomidine is as effective as chloral hydrate in producing an appropriate state for sedated auditory brainstem response testing.
Recommended Citation
Sherry, L. Levey, E. Gillen, C. & Pillion, J. P. (2017). Effectiveness of Dexmedetomidine for Sedation in Auditory Brainstem Response Testing. Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention, 2(2), 10-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15142/T3591C
Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/jehdi/vol2/iss2/4
