Inpatient Audiologic Services Facilitate Early Hearing Detection.

Am J Audiol

Division of Clinical Therapies, Department of Audiology, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH.

Published: January 2025

Purpose: Infants needing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) intervention have protracted timelines for diagnosis after not passing their newborn hearing screening despite being at higher risk for congenital hearing loss. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of early hearing detection for infants with a history of NICU admission. The secondary aim was to determine if diagnostic audiology services within the NICU setting accelerated diagnosis and intervention.

Method: A retrospective chart review was completed for infants referred for diagnostic audiologic testing from 2018 to 2021 at a tertiary urban-setting children's hospital. After exclusion criteria were applied, 367 infants with NICU history were included in the analysis. Various factors were recorded from electronic medical records. Time to diagnosis was derived and compared across (a) NICU location, (b) insurance type, and (c) race/ethnicity.

Results: Analysis of infants with NICU history revealed that 70% of infants had a diagnosis by 3 months corrected age. The level of in-NICU audiologic care did not significantly impact corrected age at diagnosis; however, loss to follow-up (LTFU) rates were higher for NICUs that did not provide in-hospital diagnostic services (10.0%) when compared to the NICU setting with inpatient audiology services (6.8%). In-NICU testing occurred on average 5.7 weeks prior to discharge, expediting diagnosis of hearing status compared to having to wait for an outpatient evaluation after discharge.

Conclusions: Timely hearing detection is feasible in the medically complex NICU population. Inpatient audiology diagnostic testing may help reduce LTFU and facilitate early hearing detection and intervention.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/2024_AJA-24-00178DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

hearing detection
16
early hearing
12
facilitate early
8
nicu
8
audiology services
8
nicu setting
8
infants nicu
8
nicu history
8
compared nicu
8
corrected age
8

Similar Publications

The inferior colliculus is a key nucleus in the central auditory pathway, integrating acoustic stimuli from both cochleae and playing a crucial role in sound localization. It undergoes functional and structural development in childhood and experiences age-related degeneration later in life, contributing to the progression of age-related hearing loss. This study aims at finding out, whether the volume of the human inferior colliculus can be determined by analysis of routinely performed MRIs and whether there is any age-related variation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Hearing impairment during childhood is a widespread health issue. Prompt recognition and timely intervention are vital for the advancement of language skills. Insufficient parental knowledge can lead to a delay in diagnosing and treating a condition, which can have a negative impact on academic performance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Silent Hearing Loss in Kidney Transplant Patients Receiving Tacrolimus: A Fact or a Myth?

Indian J Nephrol

June 2024

Mansoura Nephrology and Dialysis Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Mansoura, Egypt.

Background: It has been claimed that tacrolimus may have harmful effects on the auditory system, where it has been linked to ototoxicity and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). We evaluated silent SNHL in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) receiving tacrolimus and the different factors affecting it compared to healthy controls.

Materials And Methods: In this case control study, hearing functions were studied in 42 KTRs receiving tacrolimus as maintenance immunosuppressive therapy for more than 3 months in comparison to 27 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects using tympanometry, pure-tone audiometry (PTA), extended high frequency audiometry (EHFA), and transient evoked oto-acoustic emissions (TEOAEs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) has been proven feasible for non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL) in singleton pregnancies. However, previous research is limited to the second trimester and the application in twin pregnancies is blank. Here we provide a novel algorithmic approach to assess singleton and twin pregnancies in the first trimester.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Listeners with hearing loss have trouble following a conversation in multitalker environments. While modern hearing aids can generally amplify speech, these devices are unable to tune into a target speaker without first knowing to which speaker a user aims to attend. Brain-controlled hearing aids have been proposed using auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods, but current methods use the same model to compare the speech stimulus and neural response, regardless of the dynamic overlap between talkers which is known to influence neural encoding.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!