International Journal of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery | November 2021 | Vol 7 | Issue 11 Page 1794 International Journal of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Ramanjaneyulu J et al. Int J Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2021 Nov;7(11):1794-1798 http://www.ijorl.com pISSN 2454-5929 | eISSN 2454-5937 Original Research Article Oto acoustic emissions in early detection of sensorineural hearing loss in high-risk neonates J. Ramanjaneyulu, S. Rajesh Kumar*, V. Krishna Chaitanya, A. Kusumanjali INTRODUCTION Congenital hearing loss is one of the most common congenital anomalies which can be identified early in life. 1 It is known that magnitude of hearing loss is higher in neonates with low birth weight, hyperbilirubinemia etc. 2 Early identification of hearing loss and appropriate intervention within the first 6 months of life have been demonstrated to ameliorate many of the adverse consequences and facilitate language acquisition. In developing countries like India there is no estimate of the magnitude of this problem. Studies reveal that in India incidence of permanent hearing loss is 6-7 per 1000 newborns per year. Among these an increased incidence of hearing loss of 10.2 times more is being reported in high-risk group of babies. 3 Failure to detect congenital or acquired hearing loss in children may result in lifelong deficits in speech and language acquisition, poor academic performance, personal-social mal adjustments, and emotional difficulties. Early identification of hearing loss and appropriate intervention within the first 6 months of life have been demonstrated to ameliorate many of the adverse consequences and facilitate language acquisition. 1 The magnitude of hearing loss in high-risk ABSTRACT Background: Early identification of congenital hearing loss and early intervention ameliorated many adverse consequences. This study was performed to observe effectiveness of otoacoustic emission in screening of hearing loss in high-risk babies. Methods: Prospective study on 45 high-risk newborns delivered during period of 2013-2014. Selective newborn hearing performed with oto acoustic emissions (OAE) and auditory brain stem responses (ABR), in high-risk infants aged below 7 days, 15 days, after 45 days and after 90 days. Results: Study population comprised of 45 high-risk newborns. In 1 st level screening, 28 (62%) babies showed recordable OAE, 17 (38%) babies failed. In 2 nd level screening 31 (81%) passed and 7 (19%) failed and death occurred in 7 infants. In 3 rd level screening both OAE and brain stem evoked response audiometry (BERA), was performed in 38 cases and positivity was reported in 37 cases. 4 th level screening was similar to 3 rd level screening where 3 babies failed ABR test. In our study incidence of sensorineural hearing loss found to be 78.91% (3/38×1000) per 1000 high-risk babies. Auditory neuropathy was observed in 2 (4.4%) patients. Sensitivity and specificity of OAE was 100% and 33.3% respectively. In high-risk low birth weight neonates’ sensitivity and specificity was 66.7% and 50.0%. Conclusions: In high-risk babies, appropriate time for screening with OAE is around 60 days of age. OAE are useful diagnostic tool in evaluation of high-risk neonates for early detection of sensorineural hearing loss. Keywords: OAE, ABR, BERA, Hearing loss, High risk babies, Neonate screening Department of ENT, Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India Received: 04 October 2021 Revised: 19 October 2021 Accepted: 20 October 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. S. Rajesh Kumar, E-mail: entdrrajesh@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-5929.ijohns20214233