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Newborn hearing screening in prematurity: fate of screening failures and auditory maturation
Author(s) -
Yang H.C.,
Sung C.M.,
Shin D.J.,
Cho Y.B.,
Jang C.H.,
Cho H.H.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
clinical otolaryngology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1749-4486
pISSN - 1749-4478
DOI - 10.1111/coa.12794
Subject(s) - medicine , neonatal intensive care unit , pediatrics , audiology , otoacoustic emission , gestational age , confidence interval , hearing loss , absolute threshold of hearing , referral , odds ratio , otorhinolaryngology , pregnancy , surgery , family medicine , biology , genetics
Objectives The purpose of this study was to identify delayed auditory maturation and the fate of premature infants who failed the newborn hearing screening ( NHS ) in neonatal intensive care unit. Materials and methods A total of 1375 neonates underwent NHS using the transient evoked otoacoustic emission ( TEOAE ) in a tertiary hospital between 2007 and 2010 according to the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing guidelines. In addition, a structured telephone survey was given to caregivers of infants who were lost to follow‐up NHS . Auditory steady‐state response ( ASSR ) threshold and the threshold change in diagnostic test failures were analysed. Result Among the 1375 NICU babies, 344 (25.0%) babies, 111 (9.7%) babies and 64 (4.6%) babies failed to pass the first TEOAE , second TEOAE and diagnostic ASSR , respectively. However, at the age of about 5 years, 12 (0.9%) infants showed permanent hearing loss ( PHL ). The ASSR threshold improved from 69.0 ± 19.7 dB to 52.9 ± 21.6 dB in <4 months ( P < 0.001). Premature infants of <29 weeks of gestational age at birth showed higher referral ( P = 0.003) rate at the first OAE test compared to the others, and the difference continued until the last follow‐up. The odds ratio for the initial ASSR threshold >67.5 dB for PHL was 9.00 (95% confidence interval, 1.7–46.7). Conclusion Most of first TEOAE screening failures (91.3%) showed normal hearing and speech development. Hearing levels in premature infants can improve over time, particularly in neonates with initial ASSR threshold <67.5 dB .