European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background:  Background: There is a need of universal hearing screening instead of focusing only on high-risk neonates. This study was done to study otoacoustic emissions (OAE) in neonates admitted in NICU at tertiary care hospital. Aims: To estimate the occurrence of abnormal hearing screening results in full term and preterm neonates admitted and screened at tertiary care hospital. To correlate maternal, intranatal and postnatal risk factors with OAE results. Methods: This is a cross sectional study done over a period of 1 year including 100 neonates admitted in NICU and level one care. Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) was used for primary screening upto 1 month of age. Presence of OAE response in both ear was considered as pass. Absence of OAE response in either ear was considered as ‘Refer’. The ‘Refer’ neonates underwent a 2nd screen within 4 weeks of 1 st screening. BERA was used to confirm the hearing loss if neonates failed 2nd screening. Various details of patient like age, gender, birth weight, gestational age, maternal, intranatal and postnatal risk factors for hearing loss were noted. Results: Out of 100 neonates 26 had ‘REFER’ on initial screening, out of which 19 were preterm and 7 were full term. In 2 nd screening 5 neonates failed, out of which 3 were preterm and 2 were full term neonates. They were advised BERA, out of which 1 neonate was diagnosed with hearing loss. High ‘REFER’ rate was observed in early preterm in comparison to late preterm (p value-0.015). Out of the 26 neonates which failed initial screening, the most common risk factor was prematurity (73%) followed by prolonged NICU stay (42%), followed by sepsis (31%), followed by hyperbilirubinemia and maternal diabetes (15%). Conclusion: There is a need to incorporate universal neonatal hearing screening in all health care facilities, for identification of all newborns with hearing loss before 6 months. Even Anganwadi workers can be trained to administer this test and refer to higher centre if required. Comparing the prevalence's of hearing loss in 2 groups of ‘At risk ‘and ‘not At risk ‘group, the difference was statistically insignificant. Thus applying only high risk strategy for neonatal hearing screening can miss significant number of children with hearing loss among ‘not At risk ‘group. BERA should be used to confirm hearing impairment.