The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics 2005 , Vol 47 , Num 3
Overcoming difficulties in implementing a universal newborn hearing screening program
1Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases of Athens National University Hippokration Hospital, Athens, Greece
2Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases of Tzanion General Hospital, Piraeus, Athens, Greece
3Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases of Pediatric Audiology, Iaso Maternity Hospital, Athens, Greece
4Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases of Ioannina University Faculty of Medicine, Ioannina, Athens, Greece
Korres S, Balatsouras DG, Vlachou S, Kastanioudakis IG, Ziavra NV, Ferekidis E. Overcoming difficulties in implementing a universal newborn hearing screening program. Turk J Pediatr 2005; 47: 203-212.

The aim of this paper was to present our experience with a universal newborn hearing screening program, including the specific problems and difficulties faced since its beginning, along with the measures used to overcome them and to improve its efficiency. We analyzed data from 22,195 newborns screened by transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) performed during the first days after birth. 84.8% of the newborns passed on the first test and another 12.15% passed on rescreening before hospital discharge. This produced a “not pass” rate (false-positive and true positive) of 3.05%. The rate of newborns who did not undergo screening and the rate of “lost to follow-up” newborns were reduced in time, due to various applied modifications to the protocol. It may be thus concluded that our protocol proved to be successful in attaining low refer rates for follow-up screening. A major problem that remains unresolved is the absence of effective follow-up. Keywords : hearing, otoacoustic emissions, screening, transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions, universal newborn hearing screening

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