Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies "GF Ingrassia," ENT Section, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
Department of Adult and Development Age Human Pathology "Gaetano Barresi", ENT Section, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital. 2021 Aug;41(4):356-363. doi: 10.14639/0392-100X-N1162.
We have clarified the role of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) for both early diagnosis and rapid treatment in order to improve the prognosis of the deaf child and reduce patient management costs. Although in Sicily UNHS has been progressively implemented, there is scarce data in the literature on this matter. Therefore, the main objective was to collect in the year 2018 the following data: number of newborns screened for hearing loss, number of infants "referred" to transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE), number of infants with pathologic auditory brainstem response (ABR) and number of infants affected by permanent hearing loss.
UNHS monitoring was conducted through the collection of data through a questionnaire, which was analysed evaluating the effectiveness and adherence to the screening program prepared by the Department for Health Activities and the Epidemiological Observatory (DASOE).
In 2018, there were 40,243 newborns in Sicily. A total of 37,562 newborns were screened (93.3%). There were 1,328 "referred" infants with TEOAE (3.5%). On the 2 level, "referred" newborns examined were 1,080 of 1,328 expected (missing 248 "refer" newborns, equal to 18.6%). The number of "referred" infants confirmed with TEOAE was 113 of 1,080, while "referred" infants confirmed with ABR were 71. On the 3 level, 67 of 71 were infants examined: 28 infants were suffering from monolateral hearing loss (13 slight/mild, 13 moderate, 1 severe and 1 profound) and 39 from bilateral hearing loss (1slight/mild, 19 moderate, 13 severe and 7 profound). Excluding 7 infants from the NICU, 60 of 37,562 infants had hearing loss (1.5%).
The monitoring of the UNHS in Sicily has allowed obtaining the data of individual centres, absent in the literature to date, to verify the effectiveness of the screening, according to JCIH criteria, to highlight some criticalities and, finally, to propose possible solutions.
我们明确了普遍新生儿听力筛查（UNHS）在早期诊断和快速治疗方面的作用，以便改善聋儿的预后并降低患者管理成本。尽管在西西里岛，UNHS 已逐步实施，但文献中对此问题的数据却很少。因此，主要目标是在 2018 年收集以下数据：听力损失筛查的新生儿人数，瞬态诱发耳声发射（TEOAE）“转介”的婴儿人数，病理性听性脑干反应（ABR）的婴儿人数和患有永久性听力损失的婴儿人数。
通过问卷调查收集数据进行 UNHS 监测，该问卷通过分析评估由卫生活动和流行病学观察站（DASOE）制定的筛查计划的有效性和依从性来进行分析。
2018 年，西西里岛有 40243 名新生儿。共有 37562 名新生儿接受了筛查（93.3％）。有 1328 名婴儿“转介”进行 TEOAE 检查（3.5％）。在 2 级，检查了 1080 名预期的 1328 名“转介”新生儿（有 248 名“转介”新生儿失踪，占 18.6％）。有 113 名“转介”婴儿经 TEOAE 证实，有 71 名婴儿经 ABR 证实。在 3 级，有 71 名中有 67 名婴儿接受了检查：28 名婴儿患有单侧听力损失（13 名轻度/中度，13 名中度，1 名严重和 1 名深度），39 名婴儿患有双侧听力损失（1 名轻度/中度，19 名中度，13 名严重和 7 名深度）。排除新生儿重症监护病房的 7 名婴儿后，37562 名婴儿中有 60 名（1.5％）患有听力损失。
西西里岛的 UNHS 监测使我们获得了迄今为止文献中尚不存在的各个中心的数据，以根据 JCIH 标准验证筛查的有效性，突出显示某些关键问题，并最终提出可能的解决方案。
