Functional hearing loss is often misdiagnosed as sensorineural hearing loss, and patients may be forced to receive unnecessary treatment. In this study, we examined the clinical characteristics of children with functional hearing loss. A total of 37 children with functional hearing loss (55 ears) diagnosed over the past 7 years were enrolled. The subjects comprised 8 boys and 29 girls, with an average age of 10.7 years (range, 5–17). While 7 of these children were found incidentally to have hearing loss during school health examination, the remaining 30 children visited our hospital with symptoms. Twenty-one children had functional factors, and 16 children were not conscious of their hearing loss. Interestingly, almost a half of the children (51.4%) had only unilateral hearing loss. Pure-tone audiometry showed moderate-severe horizontal-type hearing loss in most cases. In self-recording audiometry by Bekesy, 47% of the ears showed Jerger type V, a unique, but not specific, finding, in cases of functional hearing loss. All children showed normal response in the stapedius reflex (SR) test and auditory brainstem response (ABR). ABR was most useful and SR was useful as a screening test for functional hearing loss. Boys and children with unilateral hearing loss showed a good prognosis, which was not dependent on the severity of the hearing loss.
