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Sensorineural meaning

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I’d never given much thought to the term Sensorineural hearing loss. I always just thought it meant damage to the cochlea. Although that’s not a bad assumption for us there’s more to it than that. There are two parts to sensorineural. Sensori refers to the cochlea. Neural refers to the auditory nerve. Typical testing can’t differentiate specifically where the loss is other than after the middle ear so it’s called sensorineural. That said, it really doesn’t matter for most of us. I think the only time it would really matter is if one were considering a cochlear implant and before doing that they would want to know if your auditory nerve is functioning properly. This they do with an (Auditory Brainstem Response) test. Just found this interesting.

@MDB said:

That said, it really doesn’t matter for most of us. I think the only time it would really matter is if one were considering a cochlear implant and before doing that they would want to know if your auditory nerve is functioning properly.

Seems it could affect those with hearing aids as well. Just a guess but we have many members complaining about not getting good results from hearing aids. I wonder if some of those might have nerve damage causing issues with hearing. This type loss couldn’t be helped with aids.

Interesting subject, thanks for sharing.

Edited

You’re right. I have no idea how common auditory nerve issues are and hearing aids wouldn’t help.

The axiom I heard almost 50 years ago: “Hearing aids can only work with what you have left to work with” is still true today. Many of the very unhappy hearing aid users do not have much hearing or understanding left to work with and the results are indicative of this.

@MDB said:

This they do with an ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) test.

Yes, and it is also performed, especially in small children.

There is also the SISI test, very simple and can be done by reportedly all audiometers. However, I don’t know if it is still in use currently.

Personally, I have taken the SISI test only once, with 100% correct responses in the right ear unaided.

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