Perceptive Deafness Associated with Severe Neonatal Jaundice

Causes of Severe Deafness in Schoolchildren in Northumberland and Durham

“…Crabtree and Gerrard (1950) reported that the degree of deafness bore no constant relationship to the extent of the extrapyramidal lesion nor to the level of intelligence and could be the only sequel to neonatal jaundice. Various authors (Goodhill, 1950;Gerrard, 1952;Johnsen, 1952;Cavanagh, 1954;Fisch and Osborn, 1954) have studied the incidence of neonatal jaundice among children with loss of hearing, and as premature infants are particularly liable to develop severe jaundice even in the absence of haemolytic disease of the newborn the incidence of prematurity is given for most of these series.…”

Hyperbilirubinaemia and Perceptive Deafness

“…Brodie and Ballantine, working on bacteria and not on animals, have suggested that synkavit may uncouple oxidative phosphorylation. This is the same activity that bilirubin is known to possess (Ernster et al, 1957), and if it can be shown to do the same in animals it may explain the damage which the combination of bilirubin and vitamin K may produce.…”

“…The association between kernicterus and perceptive deafness has. been well known since Crabtree and Gerrard (1950) demonstrated that deafness was present in 16 out of 20 cases of athetoid cerebral palsy. After the identification by Claireaux, Cole, and Lathe (1953) of bilirubin as the pigment in the brain cells in kernicterus, evidence accumulated to incriminate bilirubin as the principal factor in the causation of neurological complications in haemolytic disease of the newborn.…”

Special Disabilities

“…An hereditary cause which is receiving increasing attention is Rh incompatibility between mother and child. Authors vary widely in the frequency with which they report the Rh factor as a cause of deafness; however, all agree that it contributes substantially to the number of children with hearing losses (62,63). Adults who have hereditary types of deafness, it is urged, should be educated concerning the probabilities of transmission to their c h ildren (64).…”