[Early hearing screening by otoacoustic emissions and auditory brain stem response in Nabeul]

Hearing loss is the most common congenital abnormality with a reported prevalence of 1 to 3% live births. Early detection and intervention is critical to prevent the adverse consequences of a delayed diagnosis on speech language and cognitive development. Study the frequency of deafness in the newborns and the infants under 6 months followed in Tlatli Hospital in Nabeul and to search for correlations with risk factors identified by the Joint Committee on Infant Screening. 397 children aged between 04 days and 5 months with deafness risks are tested on two-stage strategy of evoked otoacoustic emissions [EOAE] and auditory brain stem response [ABR]. EOAE test is positif in 9,32% of cases [37 children] and the ABR test is positif at 7 of these ; that is 1,76% of cases. Significant statistic correlations were found with the antecedent of bacterial meningitis [p=0,001] and trisomy 21 [p=0,018]. Unfortunately 40% of the children were lost to follow-up. EOAE with ABR provide an excellent procosis screening technique of hearing loss. Such screening implies however the creation of networks to assure patient follow up