Indicadores de risco para deficiência auditiva em recém-nascidos internados em unidade de terapia intensiva neonatal

Abstract

Purpose: To determine risk indicators for hearing loss found in infants at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a hospital located in the north of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as to verify its relationship with otoacustic emissions (OAE) Methods: The sample was composed by 490 newborns hospitalized at the NICU for more than five days, between May 2016 and May 2018. Data collection was carried out verifying the prevalence of the risk indicators for hearing loss and the OAE results in the study population. Results: 90.6% of the studied infants were born pre-term and 34.3% weighed ≤1,500g; the average time of hospital stay was 27.7 days. Out of the 490 screened infants, 6.7% failed the OAE test, 2.8% continued to fail on the retest and 1.4% were referred to audiology evaluation. A significant statistic relationship between the following risk indicators for hearing loss and ‘refer’ results on OAE testing was observed: use of ototoxic drugs, neonatal infection (meningitis), Apgar score of 0 to 6 at the fifth minute, congenital infections, anoxia and craniofacial anomalies. 27.7% of the newborns presented four or more risk indicators for hearing loss. Conclusion: The risk indicators for hearing loss found in this study were: use of ototoxic drugs, birth weight of ≤1,500g, mechanic ventilation, Apgar score of 0 to 4 at the first minute and/or 0 to 6 at the fifth minute, neonatal infection (meningitis), congenital infections, anoxia, craniofacial anomalies, syndromes, family history of hearing loss and hyperbilirubinemia, with significant statistical relationships among six of these indicators and ‘refer’ results on OAE retesting.