English

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The prognosis of infants who survive apparent still birth or birth asphyxia is difficult to judge from few reports. BERA is useful in determining hearing threshold in difficult and uncooperative patients. Hearing is the means by which the newborn comes into contact with the world of sound and with language. The first three years of life are the most important period for speech and language acquisition. Reduced hearing acuity of any severity in infancy or early childhood may prevent the child from receiving adequate auditory, linguistic and social stimulation required for speech and language development. Several risk factors associated with hearing loss during early infancy have been described by Joint Committee on Infant Hearing which includes hereditary cause, in utero infection, prematurity, asphyxia, hyperbilirubinemia and ototoxic medications. OBJECTIVES: To assess the degree of hearing impairment in infants with birth asphyxia by using BERA. METHODS: 37 high risk infants having one or more risk factors attending Pediatric OPD of Bapuji hospital and Chigateri General Hospital and 30 age matched controls satisfying the inclusion criteria were randomly selected from immunization Centre and subjected to BERA. Parameters such as absolute latencies of waves I, III and V, Inter peak latencies I-III, I-V and III-V were assessed and analyzed by using unpaired t-test. RESULTS: The infants with birth asphyxia had increased wave V threshold when compared to the control group. Absolute latencies of wave V was prolonged in the cases. The incidence of hearing impairment was 60 % in the birth asphyxia infants.