Neonatal Screening and Follow-up
In May 1999 the Speech and Hearing Clinic initiated a universal infant hearing screening program at East Alabama Medical Center. All babies born at EAMC are screened for hearing loss. The program is conducted by certified audiologists and graduate students also participate in the testing under supervision. Testing is conducted seven days a week, and babies can be tested when they are about eight hours old.
The audiologists are using a hand held otoacoustic emissions (OAE) device called the Echocheck from Otodynamics Ltd. Otoacoustic emissions are faint sounds produced by most normal inner ears, which can be detected by a sensitive microphone placed in the ear canal. The Echocheck delivers clicking sounds repeated fifty times per second through a soft tip placed in the baby’s ear canal. The inner ear produces tiny echoes which are recorded by the microphone, processed and evaluated by the instrument’s state of the art digital technology. A sensory hearing loss will stop the production of these echoes by the inner ear. The echoes are also blocked by debris or vernix in the ear canal, fluid behind the eardrum, or eustachian tube problems.
When the baby passes the hearing screening test, no additional testing is recommended. If a normal response is not obtained in one or both ears, the baby is retested the next day prior to discharge. If the baby passes the retest, then no further testing is advised unless the baby is at risk for progressive hearing loss. If the baby does not pass the retest, then follow-up audiological testing is recommended within one month.