Neonatal Hearing Screening in a Nicu – A Rural Medical College Experience

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:To determine the incidence of Auditory impairment in the population of New born infants in a Neonatal intensive Care unit of a Tertiary Care centre using Oto-Acoustic Emissions. METHODS: 648 Newborn infants admitted to NICU in paediatric dept between June 2011 to May 2012 were taken as subjects for the study. OAE testing was done using a Portable OAE device. Each ear was tested separately and interpreted as Pass/Fail depending on the OAE response. RESULTS: Out of 648 infants 613 infants passed the OAE test after the second screening which takes the sensitivity of the test to 94.59%. Out of the 82 infants who failed the test, 22(26.8%) were preterm with Hyperbilirubinemia, 14(17.07%) were preterm with respiratory distress, 17 (20.73%) were preterm only and 29(35.36%) were term babies. CONCLUSION: Transient Otoacoustic Emissions are a very quick and Noninvasive technique, and suitable for hearing screening in infants. Two-stage screening for hearing improved identification of newborns with hearing loss in a cost effective manner.