Early identification of hearing impairment of neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit using otoacoustic emissions

It is well recognized that hearing is critical to speech and language development, communication, and learning. Otoacoustic emission (OAE) is an efficient and sensitive method to identify subjects at risk for auditory impairment. Infants who require admission to neonatal intensive care unit are reported to be at 10-20 times greater risk for hearing impairment. The porpuse of this study was to investigate the incidence of hearing impairment in neonates screened by OAE. In a cross-sectional study, 148 newborns having risk factors for hearing impairment reffering to Taleghani hospital of Arak and Aboozar hospital of Ahwaz were evaluated. All clients had normal otoscopic findings. Transient evoked (TEOAE) and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were measured in both ears. If the results of otoacoustic emissions were not normal, these tests were repeated one month later. Patients who did not pass the second stage were reffered for comprehensive auditory evaluations. Data analysis was performed using Kolmogrov-Smirnov and t-tests. 41 and 28 cases could not pass the examining test at the first TEOAE and DPOAE examination, respectively. Also, 23 and 16 cases did not pass the examining test at the second TEOAE and DPOAE evaluations, respectively. These participants underwent auditory brainstem response evaluation and 11 of them had abnormal responses. In 5 cases of confirmed ones, hearing impairment was due to aminoglycoside side effects. OAE hearing screening of at-risk newborns is a clinically beneficial approach to early detection of hearing impairment. Regarding the high prevalence of hearing loss in our subjects (7.43%), prevention of its complications is highly recommended in this population.