Newborn hearing screening is an objective, simple and fast method to screen out newborn babies who may have a hearing impairment, and further diagnose and follow up.
Commonly used methods for newborn hearing screening include otoacoustic emission (OAE) and automatic auditory brainstem response (AABR). Both technologies are currently internationally recognized and both are non-invasive. Most hospitals in my country use otoacoustic emission for hearing screening, and automatic auditory brainstem response (AABR) is mainly used for hearing screening of newborns in the intensive care unit (NICU).
The normal cochlea can produce a very soft sound, which is transmitted to the external auditory canal through the ossicular chain and tympanic membrane and can be detected. If the baby has cochlear hearing loss, it will not produce otoacoustic emissions, and the otoacoustic emission (OAE) test will fail. The automatic auditory brainstem response (AABR) can reflect the functions of the outer ear, middle ear, cochlea, and cochlear nerve pathways. The automatic auditory brainstem response fails, indicating that there may be problems in the auditory pathway.
Generally, when the baby is sleeping or resting, place a suitable size probe or earmuff on one ear of the baby to start the test, and then do the other ear after finishing one ear. If OAE or AABR fails, rescreening or referral is required.
Newborn hearing screening test items include diagnostic OAE, 1kHz acoustic immittance test, short and short tone ABR, AERP, ASSR and bone conduction ABR, pediatric behavioral audiometry (BOA, VRA, PA, PTA), speech Testing and assessment of auditory and speech development, etc.
