The infant deafness is a common clinical condition that affects approximately 1-3 infants on 1000; this percentage rises to values of 4-5% for infants with audiology risk factors or that are been hospitalized in neonatal intensive care. Since a full hearing is a prerequisite for the development of an optimal oral communication, an early diagnosis and a prosthetic-rehabilitation intervention are essential, both in terms of health and quality of life in the long term and for economic and social costs. Universal newborn hearing screening is the best strategy for early identification of infants with hearing defect. Our study considers a casuistry of 9201 infants residing in the municipality of AUSL of Cesena subjected to audiologic screening with OAE from March 2004 until December 2008. Of the 9201 infants, 9085 were tested (98.74%). The percentage of infants with normal OAE test was 99.08%. Of the 84 newborn with positive result at OAE test, 29 have not completed the follow up and 55 were examined with ABR (0.6%). Of these, 31% showed hearing loss. In our study, the prevalence of all forms of neonatal deafness was 2.06‰, while the forms of sensorineural hearing loss 1.84‰. The protocol applied in our study showed a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 99.62%
NEWBORN HEARING SCREENING: THE EXPERIENCE OF AUSL OF CESENA
PALADINI, Alessia;FARNETI, Carlotta;
2009
Abstract
The infant deafness is a common clinical condition that affects approximately 1-3 infants on 1000; this percentage rises to values of 4-5% for infants with audiology risk factors or that are been hospitalized in neonatal intensive care. Since a full hearing is a prerequisite for the development of an optimal oral communication, an early diagnosis and a prosthetic-rehabilitation intervention are essential, both in terms of health and quality of life in the long term and for economic and social costs. Universal newborn hearing screening is the best strategy for early identification of infants with hearing defect. Our study considers a casuistry of 9201 infants residing in the municipality of AUSL of Cesena subjected to audiologic screening with OAE from March 2004 until December 2008. Of the 9201 infants, 9085 were tested (98.74%). The percentage of infants with normal OAE test was 99.08%. Of the 84 newborn with positive result at OAE test, 29 have not completed the follow up and 55 were examined with ABR (0.6%). Of these, 31% showed hearing loss. In our study, the prevalence of all forms of neonatal deafness was 2.06‰, while the forms of sensorineural hearing loss 1.84‰. The protocol applied in our study showed a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 99.62%I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
