Follow-Up Hearing Test Results of High Risk Children who Passed Neonatal Hearing Screening

Background: Children who are considered high risk for hearing loss, irrespective of their neonatal hearing screening results, are required to continue follow-up at an audiology clinic. No consensus exists on how frequently they should be monitored or on which tests should be used.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hearing test results of children born in Hadassah Medical Center, who passed neonatal hearing screening, and due to high risk factors continued follow-up.

Methods: We reviewed the files of 3721 children with high risk factors who passed the screening. out of them, 905 (24%) continued follow-up at the Hadassah Medical Center Audiology Clinic.

Results: Follow-up results showed 70.6% had normal hearing, 23.8% had a conductive hearing loss, and in 4.1% the results were inconclusive. In 1.5% of the children (14 children), a sensorineural hearing loss was discovered. The children with the sensorineural hearing loss had the following risk factors: >5 days in NICU, very low birth weight, familial hearing loss and CMV.

These children had passed screening but were subsequently found to have a hearing loss; in most cases there was a reasonable explanation: progressive hearing loss (2 cases), mild hearing loss or just a high frequency loss (5 cases), auditory neuropathy (3 cases) since until 2010 the screening included just OAE so cases of auditory neuropathy would have passed. Nevertheless, 4 unexplained cases remained.

Conclusions: With these findings, we urge a re-examination of the existing program, and clear recommendations for hearing test follow-up as well as its frequency in the high risk group.