Hearing Assessment in Infants: A Retrospective Institutional Study
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction
Disorders of hearing are one of the most common disabilities in the country, especially in children. Hearing impairment is the most common congenital disease (3.5–9%) considering all degrees of permanent unilateral or bilateral deafness. Hearing disability can further lead to lifestyle difficulties later on in life. Early identification and a comprehensive treatment can help these people lead a better and productive life.
Materials and Methods
A retrospective study from the hospital records was done of infants admitted in NICU/PICU in a rural setting in, Davangere, Karnataka from January 2017 to January 2021 who had undergone Oto-acoustic emission (OAE) upon discharge, with a Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA) test done in cases that failed the initial test after 3 months.
Results
Out of the 1115 cases that was included 213(19.1%) cases were found to have hearing disability with low birth weight and hyperbilirubinemia counting for most of the cases with 326(29.2%) and 301(27.0%) cases respectively.
Conclusion
The findings of our study suggest that an early investigation for hearing disability in high-risk infants for early detection and comprehensive management of hearing disorders. It also points towards a further need for advocating a universal screening of neonates for detecting hearing disability when feasible.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
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