DISTORTION PRODUCT OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS IN INFANT SCREENING

Objective- Hearing impairment is a major problem worldwide, significantly delaying acquisition of speech in children. Unfortunately delayed detection of hearing impairment especially in developing countries, adds a significant burden on the society and the nation. Hence early detection of hearing impairment is imperative and the need of the hour lies in developing an easy, cost effective and reliable method for testing large number of infants, Oto acoustic Emissions(OAE’s) being one such test. The objective of this study was to asses the effectiveness and utility of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAE) as a screening tool for assessment of hearing impairment in infants and to assess the relationship between selected risk factors and hearing loss. Design-This cross sectional study involving a two stage DPOAE testing, with Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry as a confirmatory test for infants failing the two stage test . Materials and method-One thousand infant were selected randomly and screened with DPOAE at age of 24-72 hours. Infants who gave refer result were screened with DPOAE and infants failing the second screen underwent BERA testing.Result-Of the one thousand infants screened with DPOAE,119 infants had hearing loss on initial screen however on subsequent testing with DPOAE and later testing with BERA only 4 infants with hearing loss were detected. Conclussion-Hence initial DPOAE screen followed by BERA in failure cases is helpful for early identification of infants with hearing loss, hence allowing for timely intervention.