Newborn hearing screening program in Ankara Polatlı State Hospital: six-year outcome

Purpose: to present the results of the newborn hearing screening program conducted at polatlı state hospital, ankara, turkey, and to discuss them in accordance with relevant literature. materials and methods: all the newborn babies born at polatlı state hospital between the years of 2006 and 2011 have been included in the study, and the study has been conducted at three stages. results: bilateral hearing loss in 14 babies and unilateral hearing loss in 3 babies have been detected, making up 17 sensory-neural hearing loss cases in total (0.15%) conclusion: congenital hearing loss has an impact not only on normal speech and language but also on cognitive and behavioural development in babies. newborn hearing screening programs enable physicians to detect early hearing loss defects and thus to launch early treatment schemes. the program can be regarded as successful if diagnosis is to be confirmed in the first three months and a treatment program is to be launched in the first six months, too. as the number of hearing screening tests becomes widespread in turkey, the number of the diagnosed and treated babies suffering from hearing loss is on the increase as well.