Newborn Hearing Screening: 3 Years of Experience

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Hearing loss is one of the most common major abnormalities present at birth, which has an incidence of 1 to 3 per 1,000 newborn infants in the well-baby nursery population, and 2 to 4 per 1,000 infants in the intensive care unit population each year. If early undetected, will impede speech and language. The purpose of this study was to confirm in prevalence of neonatal hearing loss and to establish a common screening method adjusted to our country and to emphasize the importance of early detection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: TEOAE (transient evoked otoacoustic emission) were performed in 5,512 newborn infants in the well-baby nursery. The tests were performed daily until the infant had passed. Failed infants were followed at the outpatient clinic for re-tests. ABRs were performed for the confirmation of hearing loss those who had failed 3 TEOAE tests. RESULTS: The average test durations for right and left TEOAE were 67+/-50 sec and 72+/-56 sec respectively. There was no difference in test durations of the first TEOAE between before 24 hours and after 24 hours of life. 89% of tested infants passed during admission and the rest were followed at the outpatient clinic for the further studies. Eight infants were diagnosed with hearing loss on ABR. Overall time spent for the diagnosis of hearing loss was less than 3 months. CONCLUSION: TEOAE is a simple and useful screening method for the identification of hearing loss in infants. TEOAE must be necessary to universal screening of all infants.