Newborn hearing screening for 13 years at Akita university hospital

Abstract

　Newborn hearing screening (NHS) has been enforced since the year 2001 in Japan. So, over 13 years have passed since NHS was first implemented in Akita prefecture. The rate of NHS reached 100% in this prefecture in 2010. The cooperative framework of the first screening in newborns at general hospitals and complete hearing examinations at university hospitals increased the impact of NHS. We report a general overview of NHS (rate of complete hearing exam, positive-predictive value, rates of pursuits and analysis of hearing changes after the diagnosis of hearing loss) during the last 13 years at our university.
　The positive-predictive value of NHS was 61.0%. Our 13-year data did not differ from the report of a national investigation published in the year 2013. In this study, 143 patients were continuously followed up from the first diagnosis of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) to the present. We compared the ABR thresholds at the first diagnosis and the final hearing levels in patients over 3 years old. We recognized that the hearing levels have the possibility of changing after determination of the ABR. Therefore, long-term hearing management is necessary to evaluate the accurate hearing levels in children.