Midbrain deafness with normal brainstem auditory evoked potentials

To the Editor: Vitte et al.1 describe two patients with midbrain lesions who had total clinical deafness but normal elicited brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP). Because the midbrain lesions were shown on MRI to involve the inferior colliculi, the authors concluded that bilateral inferior colliculus lesions induce deafness but do not affect BAEP. We think, however, that these two reported cases have a more important neurologic implication. We recently reported a patient, like those reported by Vitte et al., with total clinical deafness that …