Hearing Screening of Newborns using Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions

Introduction The present study was devised to estimate the prevalence of neonatal hearing loss and document the importance of using DPOAE as a screening tool for identifying hearing loss in newborns. Materials and Methods This hospital based descriptive study was conducted from August 2018 to August 2019. A total of 928 newborn babies were included in the study. These newborn babies were subjected to hearing screening by distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) at 24-72 hrs after birth. For pass cases, no further testing was done. For refer cases, repeat testing with DPOAE was done within 15-30 days. Newborns with refer result on repeat DPOAE testing were subjected to Brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA) within 3 months to confirm hearing loss. Results Nine hundred and twenty eight newborn babies were screened by DPOAE. 851 newborns passed the first DPOAE hearing screening and 77 newborns gave refer result. 21 newborns were lost to follow-up. 56 newborns underwent repeat DPOAE testing and 5 newborns were referred for BERA. Amongst the 5 newborns who underwent BERA testing, one newborn was diagnosed with bilateral profound hearing loss. Hence, the prevalence of hearing loss of 1.08 per thousand newborn babies was estimated in this study. Conclusion Hearing screening of newborns using DPOAE followed by BERA in refer cases to confirm hearing loss is useful for early detection followed by timely intervention and rehabilitation