Venkat Nagender Reddy Karkala1, Mounika Thopicharla2, Jyothi Ramakrishna3, Rama Krishna Tirumala Bukkapatnam4
BACKGROUND
Approximately 3 per 1000 live births suffer from congenital hearing loss in India.
If detected before the age of 6 months, their mental, social and intellectual growth
can be restored by early intervention and rehabilitation. Their speech development
and social integration depends highly on early detection of hearing loss, at least
before the first birthday. We wanted to screen all new-borns for hearing and
assess the incidence of hearing impairment in at risk and no risk cases by using
otoacoustic emissions. We also wanted to evaluate the two-stage testing by OAE
in screening programme.
METHODS
The present study was conducted from Feb. 1st 2013 to Jan. 31st 2015. A total of
849 infants have been studied of which 63 had high risk factors.
RESULTS
The overall incidence of hearing impairment was found to be 3.75 / 1000 births in
no-risk group whereas 61.22 / 1000 were found in high risk group.
CONCLUSIONS
Early detection of hearing loss in infants by otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a reliable
tool. It conforms with high precision when done with a two-stage protocol that
reduces false apprehensions.
