Neonatal Hearing Evaluation-A Hospital Based Study

Abstract

Aim: To find the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in neonates admitted in BLDEU‘s Shri B. M. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Vijayapur. Materials & Methods: A study group consisting 320 neonates from the department of Pediatrics were evaluated in the department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Shri B. M. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Vijayapur during the period October 2014 to August 2016. Neonates were subjected to DPOAE at 48-96 hours of life. For pass cases no further testing was done. For refer cases repeat DPOAE testing was done at 45-60 days of life. Those infants who failed the rescreening were subjected to Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA) within 3 months. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study Results: Three hundred twenty neonates were screened by DPOAE. 39 infants had refer result for 1st DPOAE hearing screen. The second DPOAE screen was done at 45-60 days of life.19 infants who had failed the initial screen were rescreened. 20 infants failed to follow up. 3 infants failed the rescreening and were subjected to BERA within 3 months. On testing with BERA, 2 were found to have severe sensorineural hearing loss. Thus, the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in neonates admitted in our hospital was observed to be 6.67 per thousand neonates.

xi Conclusions: The prevalence of hearing loss was 6.67 per thousand neonates. Hence, Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions is an easy, cost effective and reliable method of testing of large number of infants for hearing loss. BERA introduced a new era in hearing screening, but its invasive nature, need for infant cooperation, cost and need for trained audiologist to conduct the test proves as limitations for the test to be used on large number of infants as a screening tool.