The need for long-term audiologic follow-up of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) graduates.

Objective: To evaluate the adequacy of newborn hearing screening in the identification of hearing loss in post-neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) infants.

Methods: Eighty-two post-NICU infants who had initially passed automated auditory brainstem response (AABR) screening were studied prospectively between November 1997 and July 1999. Tympanometry and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) were used to evaluate middle ear status and screen the hearing of subjects when they were seen routinely in the Mary L.