ABSTRACT
Background: Neonatal Hearing Loss has a prevalence that is twice than that of disorders like congenital hypothyroidism, phenyl ketonuria etc. Early detection of hearing impairment is vital since early intervention in form of hearing aids and speech therapy would help lead a child a normal life. The aim of the study was to set up a neonatal hearing screening program and to study the various risk factors which could be associated with hearing loss.Methods: The prospective descriptive study was carried over a period of two years. All neonates before being discharged were subjected to OAE. OAE was done on Oto Read Machine (Intra acoustic) and BERA was done on BERA eclipse machine (Intra acoustic). Babies who failed the first OAE were called back for a repeat OAE at six weeks of age. Babies who failed the second OAE were referred to a trained audiologist for BERA which was performed on BERA Eclipse machine.Results: Out of 1114 neonates screened, 285 neonates failed the first OAE and were called back at six weeks for repeat OAE. Out of the 285 babies who were called for repeat OAE, 258 turned up 27(9.47%) were lost to follow up. Out of the 258 babies who turned up, 245 passed the test while 13 failed the test. 13 Babies who had failed the second OAE screening were called back 1 month later for BERA testing. Out of the 13 babies who turned up for BERA testing, 12 passed the test and 1 failed giving us a prevalence of 0.89 per 1000 population. Of the various risk factors studied only low birth weight was found to be having significant association with hearing loss.Conclusion: Neonatal hearing screening is the need of the hour. Larger multi centric studies are required to establish the prevalence of hearing impairment among newborns.