Hearing Screening On Newborns

Objective: This study aims to determine the prevelance of hearing loss among all newborns who born and applied at hospital university of Dicle,Diyarbakır.Material and Method: In this study,1120 newborns who born and applied at hospital university Dicle,Diyarbakır during March 2008 to May 2011 were included.Before having been discharged,all newborns were tested with a portable otoacustic emission (OAE).It was evaluated as pass-fail according to the OAE result.All of newborns were questioned for medical history and classified according to the risk factors.Newborns who had failed from the first test were again tested for the second time after 15 days.Those who failed the second test were controlled with the ABR for the third time and evaluated whether there is a hearing loss or not.Tests were evaluated with the SPSS 6.0 and istatistical comparison were conducted by Pearson chi square.Results:In this study,1120 newborns underwent OAE screening.In the first screening test,341 (30.4 %) of them failed and 779 (69.6 %) passed.341 (30.4%) of them came for a second stage after 15 days.In the second stage,285 (25.4%) passed on OAE screening,56 (5.0%) failed.In the third stage screening at two months of age,these infants underwent ABR.The prevalence of hearing loss in this study was 2.2 percent.Hearing loss among newborns with high risk 5.7 percent and newborns without high risks 0 percent.It was found out that low birth infant weight hearing loss 6.8 % ,the newborns with hiperbulirinemia 4.8%.Conclusion:The early diagnosis of hearing loss is important for the individual's speech,language,social and emotional development.In the early diagnosis of congenital hearing loss rehabilitation the newborns hearing screening is important.The using of both OAE and ABR will increase value of the screening.In the hearing screening all newborns have to be scanned however the newborns who have risk factor must be focused on.