Role of Otoacoustic Emission Test in Neonatal Screening at Tertiary Center

To study the role of Otoacoustic emission test in neonatal screening at tertiary center. The study was conducted in the ENT department of LN medical college and JK hospital Bhopal (M.P) as a territory center between 2015 and 2017 were 1250 newborns were screened with Otoacoustic emission test with portable Interacoustics OAE DK-5610 assens an routine screening investigation. In our study a multistep screening with OAE was done, 1250 newborns (659 boys and 591 girls) were assessed. In our study we have found that OAE has 66.7% sensitivity and 98.8% specificity in diagnosis of neonatal hearing impairment. Its positive and negative predictive value was 33.3% and 99.7% respectively. It is essential to examine the generalized development of newborns by identifying hearing loss at birth and providing a screening test for assessment of them. 1250 newborns were assessed we compared the results of OAE (screening test) with the results of ABR (diagnostic test) and found sensitivity of OAE to be 66.7% and its specificity 98.8%. We conclude from these results that OAE is a good screening test for hearing loss of neonates, but the results must be confirmed with BERA test.