A universal newborn hearing screening in Iran

Objective: in september 2002 university of social welfare & rehabilitation sciences established a pilotuniversal newborn hearing screening program in two crowded maternity hospital in tehran. our objectivewas to assess the feasibility of implementing universal new born hearing screening in iran.method: between september 2002 and march 2004 a total of 7718 newborns were screened for hearingloss prior to discharge from the wellborn nursery at milad and hedayat hospitals. the average age of thesubjects at the initial screening test was 24hours. the program employed a three-stage hearing screeningprotocol using transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (teoae) screening with referral for diagnosticauditory brainstem response assessment.results: the overall pass rate at the time of hospital discharge was 92.3%, thus achieving an acceptablereferral rate of 7.7% for diagnostic audiological assessments. nine newborns were identified with permanentunilateral hearing impairment. newborns identified with bilateral hearing loss were immediately referredto the saba center for hearing aid assessment and fitting. newborns as young as 5 weeks old weresuccessfully fitted with hearing instruments and enrolled in the family center early intervention program atthe saba center conclusion: the frequency of bilateral congenital hearing loss requiring amplification in this populationis shown to be approximately 0.001 newborns. this finding is consistent with previous researches, which have indicated hearing loss to be the most frequently occurring birth defect. universal newborn hearing screening using teoaes proved to be a cost effective and feasible method of identifying congenital hearing loss in iran. the existence of many successful screening programs worldwide and the availability of fast,objective, reliable and inexpensive hearing screening procedures mean that universal neonatal hearing screening is becoming one of the standards of care.