Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) in paediatric hearing screening--the Singapore experience.

Early identification and rehabilitation of hearing impairment is important for development of language in affected children. Behavioural audiological tests in children are unreliable. Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) although a reliable objective test, is difficult to perform. Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) is now thought to be a more practicable screening modality. A study to compare the use of OAE and BAER in the paediatric population was thus undertaken. 100 children underwent OAE and BAER screening in SGH from August 1991 to February 1992. OAE was equally effective when compared with the BAER in testing for passed or failed subjects (p < 0.05, X2 = 4.9). The sensitivity and specificity of OAE with respect to BAER was 95% and 93% respectively. Mean test time was 3.1 minutes for OAE and 28.6 minutes for BAER. Success rate for OAE was 100%. We therefore conclude that OAE is a feasible alternative to the BAER as a hearing screening modality.