Abstract
The newborn hearing screening test was introduced in 1999 in Japan. Subsequent to this test, our Department has also conducted a precise reexamination test. Accordingly,176 infants were examined in our Institute from 1999 to 2002. Of these,150 infants underwent the precise reexamination test and 26 did not as their parents refused the test. The results of the reexamination test showed that:
1 The number of candidates for the precise reexamination test has been increasing every year.
2 The number of infants who were examined by otoacoustic emission (OAE) outnumbered those examined by the automated auditory brainstem response (AABR).
3 These testing methods allowed a number of infants (n=31) with unilateral sensory neural deafness to be detected.
4 The accuracy of AABR testing was found to be higher as compared to that of OAE.
The newborn hearing screening test has become a routine examination in Osaka Prefecture and has proved to be an efficient universal screening test battery for the early detection of deafness in infants.
