Newborn hearing screening

Background: Congenital hearing loss has a major impact on both cognitive and speech-language development which eventually leads to impaired communication and a lower socio-economic status

Objective: To evaluate the result of newborn hearing screening

Design: A Retrospective Study

Setting: NICU and Post-Natal Ward, King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain

Method: A total of 1,834 babies were screened at the time of discharge, using Transient-Evoked Oto-Acoustic Emissions. Infants who failed the screening test were scheduled for a second screening test. Infants who failed the second screening test were tested with Auditory Brainstem Response [ABR]

Result: Five infants were identified with hearing impairment out of 1,834 or 272 per 100,000. The incidence was 0.27% in the infants screened from October 2012 to December 2015 in the hospital

Conclusion: Five infants were identified with hearing loss according to JCIH standards and advised early intervention. The study could be used to plan services and strategies in the hospital for newborns identified with hearing loss at a very early age to offset the long term consequences of hearing loss

Role of balloon sinuplasty in the treatment of frontal sinusitis

A fifty-one-year-old male was diagnosed with recurrent frontal sinusitis; the patient completed the full course of optimal medical therapy: nasal steroids, antibiotics and nasal douches. The patient's symptoms did not improve including frontal headaches, nasal congestion and facial tenderness over the frontal sinus. CT scan of the sinuses was performed, and it confirmed the diagnosis of isolated right frontal sinusitis. The patient underwent "balloon sinus dilatation under local anesthesia" in the ENT outpatient clinic, and he was followed-up for 18 months to monitor any complication or symptom. This was the first case that had balloon sinuplasty procedure in Bahrain under local anesthesia in a clinic setting

When cheating goes wrong: hearing device migrated to the middle ear cavity

A twenty-four-year-old Bahraini male presented to emergency with bloody discharge from the left ear and mild earache. History revealed insertion of a hearing device in the left external canal, which migrated to the middle ear cavity. The device was removed under general anaesthesia; one mm in diameter foreign body was extracted with a surgical hook through the tympanic membrane perforation. The patient did not suffer any major complication