Objectives: To find out the incidence of hearing impairment in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)-admitted newborns and to correlate between several risk factors. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: In a tertiary teaching hospital of Odisha between October 2014 and October 2016. Study population: 100 newborns delivered in the institution and admitted in NICU with usual indications and risk factors that underwent otoacoustic emission 1 and 2 (OAE1, OAE2) and Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA). Results: 84 babies in OAE1 and 86 babies in OAE2 got “pass” results. In BERA test, 92 babies got normal waveform. 7 (13.7%) of 51 premature babies, 5 (38.5%) of 13 very low birth weight babies, 7 (17.5%) of 40 babies receiving ototoxic medication for >5 days, 7 (31.8%) of 22 babies with hyperbilirubinemia, 6 (42.9%) of 14 babies with sepsis, 5 (20%) of 20 babies with birth asphyxia, 3 (60%) of 5 babies under mechanical ventilation for >5 days, 1 baby with ear abnormality, and 1 (50%) out of 2 babies with congenital infections had hearing impairment and statistically significant association with abnormal OAE and BERA test. Conclusion: There is high incidence of hearing loss in NICU-admitted newborns. OAE and BERA both should be performed for complete evaluation of hearing. Important risk factors are elaborated. Predischarge hearing assessment in NICU is most important.
Using intelligent algorithms on singlesweeps to evaluate thresholds and waveforms of brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA)
