Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening - a Necessity and not a Choice

Abstract

Introduction Congenital deafness in a child is often missed. Several distraction tests have evolved over time to diagnose congenital deafness. However, these are of limited value in the era of Evoked Response Audiometry. The study was conducted to compare the result of universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) in high risk and non-high risk neonates using Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) and Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA). Materials And Methods A study was conducted over a time period of three months at a tertiary care institute to screen all live neonates for congenital hearing impairment using OAE, followed up by BERA, if required. Result 1182 neonates were screened for hearing impairment. 336 were in high risk group and the rest in non-high risk group. Nine neonates turned out to have abnormal BERA results (absence of wave V). Six of them were high risk babies and the rest three were non-high risk ones. Discussion 33.33% of congenital deaf population detected by UNHS belong to the Non High Risk group. Studies across the world suggest at least 50% chance of missing out a congenital deaf child if Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening is not practiced. Conclusion In order to ensure that early detection and effective intervention are possible for all neonates with hearing impairment, UNHS should be performed. Three stage UNHS protocol using OAE and BERA showed that the implementation of UNHS for congenital childhood hearing loss for all neonates in India would be beneficial