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Preauricular skin tags and ear pits are associated with permanent hearing impairment in newborns

Daphne Ari-Even Roth1, Minka Hildesheimer, Sarit Bardenstein

  • 1Speech and Hearing Center, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel. rothd@post.tau.ac.il

Pediatrics
|October 3, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Infants with preauricular skin tags or ear pits have a higher risk of hearing loss. Universal newborn hearing screening using transient evoked otoacoustic emissions is effective for detecting impairment in these infants.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Audiology
  • Otolaryngology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Preauricular skin tags and ear pits are common congenital anomalies.
  • These external ear findings are associated with an increased risk of hearing impairment.
  • Early identification of hearing loss is crucial for infant development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the prevalence of hearing impairment in infants with preauricular skin tags/pits.
  • To compare this prevalence with that of the general newborn population.
  • To assess the efficacy of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) for hearing screening in this specific infant group.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of hearing screening data from 68,484 infants over 7.5 years.
  • Categorization of infants into low, high, and very high-risk groups for hearing impairment.
  • Examination of screening results and audiological follow-up for infants with and without preauricular anomalies.

Main Results:

  • Infants with preauricular tags/pits showed a significantly higher prevalence of permanent hearing impairment (8/1000) compared to others (1.5/1000).
  • The adjusted odds ratio for hearing impairment associated with these anomalies was 4.9.
  • TEOAE screening successfully identified all but one case of permanent hearing impairment detected during the study.

Conclusions:

  • Preauricular skin tags and ear pits are significant indicators of increased risk for permanent hearing impairment in newborns.
  • Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions are a reliable and effective screening method for identifying hearing loss in infants with these external ear anomalies.
Abstract

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