How would you characterize sensorineural hearing loss on audiometry?

• A. Elevated air and bone conduction thresholds with a preserved or reduced air-bone gap (usually no ABG in SNHL)
• B. Elevated bone conduction thresholds with normal air conduction
• C. Normal thresholds for both air and bone conduction
• D. Reduced air conduction with normal bone conduction

Answer: (A)

Sensorineural loss shows a problem in the inner ear or auditory nerve, so both air-conduction and bone-conduction thresholds rise, indicating reduced sensitivity through the whole auditory pathway. However, because the issue isn’t in the middle ear, the difference between air and bone conduction—the air-bone gap—remains small or normal. In other words, you’d see elevated thresholds for both AC and BC with little to no ABG. This pattern distinguishes sensorineural loss from conductive loss (where BC is normal and AC is elevated, producing a large ABG) and from normal hearing (where both AC and BC are normal).