Impact of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program on Cochlear Implantation at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of India

Abstract Background: The global consensus was established on newborn hearing screening for early identification and management of hearing loss, which is important in minimizing and preventing the negative impact of hearing loss in pediatric population. Aim and Objectives: This study was planned to assess the impact of universal neonatal hearing screening programme (UNHSP) on age of implantation, time takes for the process and candidacy evaluation for cochlear implantation (CI) in children with bilateral congenital profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), who underwent CI at a tertiary care teaching hospital of India. Material and Methods: Children with congenital severe to profound SNHL, who underwent CI after thorough evaluation were included in the study. The date of birth (DOB), date of first hearing screening, date of registration and/or enrollment at the center for further workup and reporting to the CI candidacy committee, date of CI surgery was reviewed retrospectively. Results: A total of 250 children who underwent cochlear implantation at a tertiary care center were included in this study. Out of which, approximately 68% children were screened for hearing loss (HL) through UNHSP, rest of the 32% were not screened for HL during birth due to several reasons. The difference between both the groups with respect to the age of diagnosis of HL and age of cochlear implantation is significant. However, the time taken for the evaluation process was not substantial between both the groups. Conclusion: The implementation of UNHSP has several positive impacts in respect to the age at diagnosis of HL, age at the time of receiving CI and the overall growth of the recipient. So, the UNHSP has several positive impacts with respect to the age at diagnosis of HL, age at the time of receiving CI and the overall growth in children with congenital severe to profound SNHL and the proper execution of this programme is the need of the hour.