To analyze the variation in audiological results with oto-acoustic emission (OAE) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) of term newborns with those at risk (preterm and newborns with hyperbilirubinemia). Auditory screening was conducted in 746 infants born in zonal hospital in western Maharashtra from May 2019 to May 2020. The cases included 633 healthy term, 71 preterm infants managed in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and 42 newborns with hyperbilirubinemia. Hearing impairment was confirmed through a primary screening by OAE response followed by ABR. Based on these findings, we divided infants into pass and refer. 16 patients in ‘refer’ group were identified through our protocol out of 746 newborns. The incidence of the refer group was 11 out of 633 in term newborns, 3 out of 71 in preterm and 2 out of 42 in newborns with hyperbilirubinemia after OAE. Refer groups were subjected to further evaluation by ABR which was able to remove false positives and a final tally of 8 out of 11 term newborns, 2 out of 3 preterm were found to have hearing loss. Hence, we conclude that incidence of hearing loss detected by OAE in preterm and hyperbilirubinemia newborns was more as compared to term newborns and is significant. OAE followed by ABR is a good modality of audiological assessment in ruling out false positive cases.
Key words: Auditory brainstem response, Audiological, Hyperbilirubinemia, Neonate, Oto-acoustic emission
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