Alanazi Ahmad A
College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh 11481, Saudi Arabia;
Int J Neonatal Screen. 2020 Jun 27;6(3):50. doi: 10.3390/ijns6030050. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Congenital hearing loss has been commonly reported as a significant health problem. Lost to system (LTS) is a major challenge facing newborn hearing screening (NHS) programs. This retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to determine the referral and LTS rates after the two-stage NHS based on transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) in two main hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (SA). NHS was performed on newborns before hospital discharge. Newborns were only rescreened if NHS initially revealed a fail/refer outcome in one or both ears. Those who failed the first and second screenings or had risk factors were referred for auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing to confirm or exclude hearing loss. In total, 20,171 newborns (40,342 ears; 52% males; 48% females) were screened, of whom 19,498 (96.66%) passed the initial screening, while 673 (3.34%) failed. Of the 673 newborns, 235 (34.92%) were LTS, and 438 (65.08%) were rescreened, of whom 269 (61.42%) failed and were referred for a comprehensive audiological assessment to confirm the existence of hearing loss. The referral rate after the initial two-stage screening was equal to 1.33%. The lack of awareness of the importance of NHS among parents seems to be the major cause behind the LTS rate. The stakeholders have to work efficiently to reduce the LTS rate.
先天性听力损失一直被普遍报道为一个重大的健康问题。失访是新生儿听力筛查（NHS）项目面临的一项重大挑战。这项回顾性横断面描述性研究旨在确定沙特阿拉伯利雅得两家主要医院基于瞬态诱发耳声发射（TEOAEs）的两阶段新生儿听力筛查后的转诊率和失访率。在新生儿出院前进行听力筛查。只有当听力筛查最初显示一只或两只耳朵有未通过/需转诊的结果时，新生儿才会接受重新筛查。那些第一次和第二次筛查均未通过或有风险因素的新生儿被转诊进行听性脑干反应（ABR）测试，以确认或排除听力损失。总共对20171名新生儿（40342只耳朵；52%为男性；48%为女性）进行了筛查，其中19498名（96.66%）通过了初次筛查，而673名（3.34%）未通过。在这673名新生儿中，235名（34.92%）失访，438名（65.08%）接受了重新筛查，其中269名（61.42%）未通过并被转诊进行全面的听力学评估以确认听力损失的存在。最初两阶段筛查后的转诊率为1.33%。家长对新生儿听力筛查重要性缺乏认识似乎是失访率高的主要原因。利益相关者必须高效工作以降低失访率。
