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Department of Otolaryngology
Hearing Testing
Neonatal Hearing Screening
It is important to screen infants for hearing loss so that intervention, such as hearing aids, can be initiated during the early development of speech and language. With advanced technology such as the auditory brainstem response test and the otoacoustic emissions test, even babies that are a day old can be tested. It is especially important to test those infants who have the following high risk factors for hearing loss: family history of hearing loss, perinatal infection, craniofacial anomalies, low birth weight, hyperbilirubinemia, bacterial meningitis, severe asphyxia, persistent fetal circulation, and stigmata associated with a syndrome known to include a hearing loss. Education of parents and primary care physicians is the key to early identification and treatment of infants with severe hearing loss.
Diagnostic Hearing Tests
Suspected hearing loss and its cause should be diagnosed by a team consisting of a physician and an audiologist. In addition to a physical examination of the ear, various types of hearing tests may be performed to determine the type and degree of hearing loss. These hearing tests include the pure tone hearing test, tympanogram, auditory brainstem response testing, otoacoustic emissions testing, electrocochleography, auditory steady state response, or other tests, depending on the age of the patient and the suspected problem.
Once the type and severity of hearing loss are determined, medical or surgical treatment may be initiated. Hearing aids and other amplification devices can improve the hearing level of most people who have a significant hearing loss.
Central Auditory Processing Tests
A child with deficient auditory processing has difficulty understanding speech when distractions such as classroom noise are present, even if hearing is normal. Evaluation, counseling and various intervention approaches are available and can help the child cope with the problem.
Otoacoustic Emissions Testing
WVU audiologists are now performing otoacoustic emissions testing (OAE), a relatively new clinical tool for assessment of patients with possible hearing loss. OAE's are low intensity sounds produced by the inner ear that can be detected by a sensitive microphone placed in the ear canal. In a relatively quiet environment, measurement can be completed in a few minutes without the patient's voluntary response.
Research on this technique began in the late 1970's but OAE testing has only recently become a clinically feasible tool. OAE testing is now approved by the FDA. Nationally, this technique is seeing increasing usage to rule out moderate to severe hearing loss in selected patients. In addition to the screening of neonates, WVU audiologists have used the technique in cases of severe speech/language delay, hydrocephalus, mental retardation, and other cases where no reliable behavioral localization to speech or noise was observable at any level.
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