Monitoring of the auditory pathway maturation during the first year of life in infants with sensorineural hearing loss

After establishing the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) worldwide in 1993 the detection of hearing loss in infants has improved evidently. The current study was aimed at investigating the effects of HA use on auditory function and auditory pathway maturation during the first year of life is evaluated in infants who failed the newborn hearing screening (NHS) test.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical reports of 72 infants who were referred to the ent department of the university hospital in hanover between march 2012 and December 2016 for further evaluation of the hearing status after they failed the newborn hearing screening and showed abnormal ABR results from at least one ear. All 72 infants underwent at least two or more ABR measurements before 12 months of age.

The use of hearing aids were recommended to the parents of infants with diagnostic abr results of 40 dB nHL and over in at least one ear. Hearing aids were prescripted at a age of 3,6 months +/- 2,9 months (0 to 11 months) for the right ear and at a age of 4,4 months +/-6,2 months (0 to 11 months) for the left ear.

After the use of hearing aids 32 Infants with mild to profound hearing loss showed changes in the severity of hearing loss on the follow up ABR testing on the right ear and 29 infants on the left ear. In all cases a significant reduction of the interpeak intervals was found.

An early intervention using optimally fitted hearing aids showed to have a high impact on the auditory rehabilitation and our results indicate a significant improvement of the hearing thresholds within the first 12 months of life using a hearing aid. We can only speculate whether such an improvement of the hearing level may have occurred without an early use of hearing aids.

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)