Abstract
One hundred seventy six infants (296 ears) under 4 years old suspected of hearing loss in the outpatient clinic and 72 full-term neonates (106 ears) and 22 pre-term neonates (37 ears) were subjected to the measurement of evoked otoacoustic emission (EOAE). The measurement was completed without sedation in 85.8% of all inpatients. Good response in EOAE was obtained in 57.8%, 90.6%, and 89.2% in outpatient, full-term, and pre-term neonate ears, respectively. There were 37 false positives and 4 false negatives in outpatients, suggesting the need of the technical improvement and the standerization of response criteria. Further analysis on the false negative cases along with consideration of the sociomedical benefits will be required for the clinical application of EAOE infants as an audiological screening.
