OBJECTIVE: To verify the correlation between the thresholds of behavioral audiometry in the open field and the thresholds obtained in frequency-specific auditory brainstem responses (ABR) in children between 2 to 6 months of age with sensor neural hearing loss. CASE REPORT: Twenty-three 2-6-month-old children with mild to severe bilateral sensor neural hearing loss were evaluated. The following evaluations were performed: ear, nose, and throat (ENT), otoacoustic emissions, acoustic impedance audiometry, and child audiometry in the open field. Following these evaluations, ABR research was conducted at 500 Hz and 2000 Hz. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to verify the correlation. No significant difference was observed between the ears evaluated (p = 0.694) or gender (p = 0.513), whereas a significant correlation was found between the thresholds obtained for the ABR and child audiometry in the open field at 500 Hz (p = 0.038) and 2000 Hz (p < 0.000). A significant positive correlation was found between the degree of loss and the correlation procedure; specifically, the correlation between the 2 procedures became stronger as the degree of loss increased. CONCLUSION: We found a significant correlation between the thresholds obtained in the study of ABR and audiometric hearing thresholds in child audiometry in the open field. We believe that these procedures are complementary and facilitate an audiological diagnosis in children less than 6 months of age.
