Testing for hearing in newborns

Abstract

It is estimated that 1 out of 1000 newly born infants suffer from severe to profound hearing loss. The incidence of hearing loss in patients of pediatric intensive care units is much higher and reaches 1:60. To prevent disturbances in speech and psychological development, the hearing loss has to be corrected as soon as possible. The newly developed tests for hearing include crib-o-gram, auditory brain stem evoked response and otoacoustic emission. These tests are described and discussed in this article