Newborn hearing screening with transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and automatic auditory brainstem response

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present investigation was to check Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions and Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response tests applied together in regular nurseries and Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICU), as well as to describe and compare the results obtained in both groups. Methods: We tested 150 newborns from regular nurseries and 70 from NICU. Rresults: The newborn hearing screening results using Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions and Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response tests could be applied to all babies. The “pass” result for the group of babies from the nursery was 94.7% using Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions and 96% using Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response. The newborn intensive care unit group obtained 87.1% on Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions and 80% on the Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response, and there was no statistical difference between the procedures when the groups were evaluated individually. However, comparing the groups, Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions were presented in 94.7% of the nursery babies and in 87.1% in the group from the newborn intensive care unit. Considering the Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response, we found 96 and 87%, respectively. Cconclusions: Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions and Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response had similar “pass” and “fail” results when the procedures were applied to neonates from the regular nursery, and the combined tests were more precise to detect hearing impairment in the newborn intensive care unit babies.

Keywords

• Neonatal screening
• Hearing loss
• Otoacoustic emissions
• spontaneous
• Evoked potentials
• auditory
• brain stem