FREQUENCY OF CONGENITAL HEARING LOSS IN NEONATES

Authors

  • Shakeel Ahmed
  • Shahida Sheraz
  • Sohail Ahmad Malik
  • Nasir Rafiq Ahmed
  • Shahid Farooq
  • Abdul Raheem
  • Faisal Basheer
  • Zameer Ahmad Nayyar
  • Fazal -e- Malik

Abstract

Background: Congenital deafness is commonest birth defect and it affects 2–4 neonates among 1000 live births. Detection and intervention specially before 6 months of age prevents severe linguistic, educational and psychosocial repercussions and helps the deaf child in the development of normal speech and language. Children who are identified after 6 months of age experience great difficulties in attaining speech and language. Methods: To find out the frequency of hearing loss in neonates, a hospital based observational study was conducted in Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad from June–to December 2014. One thousand new-borns selected by consecutive sampling within a specified period of time were subjected to Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) testing. Brain Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA) evaluation was performed in all those who failed OAE testing to confirm the hearing loss. Children born with microtia, meatal stenosis, cleft palate, craniofacial abnormalities and syndromic illnesses were excluded from the study. Results: Of 1000 new-borns screened, 465 were males and 535 were females whereas 632 (63.2%) were delivered through C-section and 368 (36.8%) were born via SVD. Four hundred and ninety-one (49%) babies had a positive history of consanguinity among the parents. Out of 1000 infants 13 were having hearing loss which was later on confirmed on BERA evaluation. Among them 7 were males and 6 females, 9 (69%) were born through SVD and 4 (31%) through C-section and 8 (61.5%) new-borns had a positive history of consanguinity among their parents. In all these 13 patients only 2 (15%) patients had profound while the remaining 11 (85%) had moderate to severe hearing loss. Conclusion: Frequency of hearing loss in neonates is much higher in our study (13 per 1000) as compared to other parts of the world and demands that more studies should be undertaken on this subject to confirm this.Keywords: Neonatal screening for hearing loss; Congenital deafness; Hearing loss in neonates; Otoacoustic Emission Scan.

References

Hyde ML. Newborn hearing screening programs. Overview. J Otolaryngol 2005;34(Suppl 2):S70–80.

Mehl AL, Thompson V. Newborn hearing screening: The great omission. Pediatrics 1998;101(1):E4.

Synnes AR, Anson S, Baum J, Usher L. Incidence and pattern of hearing impairment in children with < 800 g birthweight in British Columbia, Canada. Acta Paediatr 2012;101(2):e48–54.

Yoshinaga-Itana C, Sedey AL, Coulter DK, Mehl AL. Language of early and later identified children with hearing loss. Pediatrics 1998;102(5):1161–71.

Moeller MP. Early Intervention and Language Development in Children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Pediatrics 2000;106(3):E43.

Hall JW 3rd, Smith SD, Popelka GR. Newborn hearing screening with combined otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses. J Am Acad Audiol 2004;15(6):414–25.

Yousefi J, Ajalloneyan M, Amirsalari S, HassanaliFard M. Iran J Pediatr. 2013 Apr; 23(2): 199-204.

Mason CA, Gaffney M, Green DR, Grosse SD. Measures of follow-up in early hearing detection and intervention programs: a need for standardization. Am J Audiol 2008;17(1):60–7.

Kennedy C, McCann D. Universal neonatal hearing screening moving from evidence to practice. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2004;89(5):F378–83.

Watkin P. Neonatal hearing screening-Methods and Outcome. Audiol Med 2003;1(3):165–74.

Morton CC, Nance WE. Newborn hearing screening-a silent revolution. N Engl J Med 2006;354(20):2151–64.

Coates H, Gifkins K. Newborn Hearing Screening. Aust Prescr 2003;26(4):82–4.

Swanepoel D, Ebrahim S, Joseph A, Friedland PL. Newborn hearing screening in a South African private health care hospital. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 2007;76(6):881–7.

Nagapoornima P, Ramesh A, Srilakshmi, Rao S, Patricia PL, Gore M, et al. Universal Hearing Screening. Indian J Pediatr 2007;74(6):545–9.

Downloads

Published

2018-06-01

Most read articles by the same author(s)