The evaluation of auditory pathways on patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is the most common disease of sleep disorders In OSAS patients the muscles that provide the stabilization of the upper airway, loose their function during sleep. Therefore aiway narrows and collapse occurs, resulting in apnea and hypopnea. As a result of apnea and hypopnea, hypoxia and hypercapnia occur. This hypoxia and hypercapnia affect the auditory pathways in different ways. Brainstem auditory evoked response is a non invasive and objective test that evaluate the central and peripheral auditory pathways. The aim of our study is to demonstrate any effect of OSAS on auditory pathways Odiologic and BERA tests were performed to patients and to the control group, for evaluating the hearing status. Thirty patients who were diagnosed as OSAS and as a control group of twenty participants were included into the study, at Düzce University ENT Department, between September 2006 and July 2007. In conclusion we found that OSAS does not seem to have any effect on hearing.