ObjectivesThe incidence of sensorineural hearing loss is between 1 and 3 per 1000 in healthy neonates and 2–4 per 100 in high-risk infants. The national universal neonatal hearing screening carried out in Poland since 2002 enables selection of infants with suspicion and/or risk factors of hearing loss. In this study, we assessed the incidence and risk factors of hearing impairment in infants ≤33 weeks’ gestational age (wga).MethodsWe analyzed the database of the Polish Universal Newborns Hearing Screening Program from 2010 to 2013. The study group involved 11438 infants born before 33 wga, the control group—1487730 infants. Screening was performed by means of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions. The risk factors of hearing loss were recorded. Infants who failed the screening test and/or had risk factors were referred for further audiological evaluation.ResultsHearing deficit was diagnosed in 11% of infants ≤25 wga, 5% at 26–27 wga, 3.46% at 28 wga and 2–3% at 29–32 wga. In the control group the incidence of hearing deficit was 0.2% (2.87% with risk factors). The most important risk factors were craniofacial malformations, very low birth weight, low Apgar score and mechanical ventilation. Hearing screening was positive in 22.42% newborns ≤28 wga and 10% at 29–32 wga and in the control group.ConclusionsHearing impairment is a severe consequence of prematurity. Its prevalence is inversely related to the maturity of the baby. Premature infants have many concomitant risk factors which influence the occurrence of hearing deficit.

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Background: The aim of the study was to describe our initial experience with the high-definition three-dimensional (3D) exoscope for middle ear surgery versus the operating microscope. Methods: The study included 60 randomly chosen patients diagnosed with otosclerosis (n = 30) or chronic otitis media (n = 30) with a clinical indication for surgery. The primary measurement was the subjective estimation of quality of the visibility of the operating field provided by the 3D exoscope—VITOM-3D (Karl Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) in comparison to the operating microscope. Results: All procedures, except for two (3.3%) converted to the microscope, were successfully completed using a 3D exoscope. In both stapedotomy and tympanoplasty, the exoscope was superior to the microscope during more superficial portions of the procedures. By contrast, in deeper areas of the middle ear, the exoscope provided significantly worse visibility, but usually not suboptimal. Both intraoperative bleeding and the narrow surgical field substantially reduced the visibility with the 3D exoscope in comparison to the microscope. Conclusions: Overall, our study shows that the 3D exoscope offers excellent, highly magnified, and well-illuminated high-definition images of the surgical field. However, our experience revealed several important limitations of this system, including decreased depth perception in deep areas of the tympanic cavity and reduced visibility in a difficult surgical field, with subsequent need to switch to an operating microscope in select cases.

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The results of the program evaluation confirmed its good efficiency. The coverage and hearing tests results are comparable to those from other countries conducting similar national hearing screening programs.

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The Polish Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program (PUNHSP) has been carried out in Poland for 14 years. The main aim of this Program is to organize hearing screening tests and to gather the information about risk factors of hearing loss in almost all newborns in Poland. It consists of 496 centers at 3 referral levels. A total of 5 458 114 children had been registered in the Central Database (CDB) of PUNHSP by the 22nd of August 2017. Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was the most frequently appearing hearing impairment in children. It was diagnosed in 260 cases in 2016. This report presents the most important results and conclusions concerning the running of the PUNHSP in 2016.

There was no statistically significant relationship between the expression of p16 and the age of patients, cigarette smoking, tumor location, tumor staging according to the Krouse and Cannady classification, the presence of dysplasia or the occurrence of relapse.