Hearing loss is more frequent in HIV-infected patients compared with uninfected patients. Therefore, HIV-infected patients need special audiologic care. Further studies are needed because controversy remains regarding the factors that lead to ear damage.

Background: There is a huge gap in the audiological care in Africa by comparison with Western countries. Its main reason is the prohibitive cost of the medical devices used to screen or diagnose patients. A Cameroonian team tackled this problem by developing a medical device (SON'OR © ) which integrates a new instrumentation amplifier structure dedicated to perform otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA). The major technical challenges to perform OAE and BERA are the synchronization and the amplification of signals of very low amplitude. In this work, we emphasize on the general criteria necessary and indispensable to achieve an optimal amplification. The application of a novel instrumentation amplifier structure characterized by its optimized noise factor in the case of BERA and OEA emissions provides simulations and experimental results fully in line with forecasts.