Otoacoustic emissions(OAE) are acoustic signals generated by active vibration of outer hair cells in cochlea and can be recorded within the external ear canal. OAEs are divided into evoked OAEs, spontaneous OAEs. After the detection of OAEs by Kemp(1978) numerous papers were reported for its clinical applications, but most of them evaluated the uses of evoked OAEs. Spontaneous OAE(SOAE), which could be recorded in the exteral ear canal, are narrow band acoustic signals generated spontaneously in the cochlea without any external sound stimului. In this study, SOAEs were recorded in groups of patients with tinnitus and/or sensorineural hearing loss, and a group of normal participants in order to study the basic characteristics and the clinical applications of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions. The incidence of SOAEs was 25.6% in normal group, 47.4% in tinnitus group and 10.3% in sensorineural hearing loss with tinnitus group. There was no SOAE detected in sensorineural hearing loss only group. The characteristics of peaks in each group and a relationship between SOAE and tinnitogram in tinnitus and/or sensorineural hearing loss groups were analyzed.