Early detection of hearing impairment among high risk neonates in a tertiary care hospital

Background: hearing impairment has a devastating,detrimental and an in variably adverse impact on the development of the newborns and the psychological well-being of their families. it also adversely affects development of the central auditory nervous system,and can affect speech perception that interferes with growth in social,emotional,behavioural and cognitive spheres,academic achievement,vocational options,employment opportunities and economic self-sufficiency. objectives: to find out incidence of hearing impairment in high risk neonates in neonatal intensive care unit (nicu),prevalence of hearing impairment with and without high risk factors in newborns and to correlate the risk factors with hearing impairment. material and methods: a cohort study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital of surat,gujarat,india consisting of 190 normal newborns and 163 newborns with high risk factors. these newborns underwent a systematized transient otoacoustic emissions examination (toae) and brain stem evoked audiometry (bera) examination according to designed protocol and were followed up with repeated ear examinations. data were recorded and analyzed statistically. results: the incidence of hearing impairment in nicu,newborns were 3.6% and the prevalence of hearing impairment was 13%. hearing impairment was statistically significant in newborns with high risk factors such as low birth weight,preterms < 32 weeks,birth asphyxia,hyperbilirubinemia with exchange transfusion,babies on ventilator for > 5 days when compared to normal newborns. conclusion: presence of risk factors in newborns predisposes them to hearing impairment more as compared to normal newborns and the more the number of risk factors they are exposed to,the more will be the chances of hearing impairment. © journal of krishna institute of medical sciences university.