RESUMEN
Background: Objectives of the present work were to analyze the prevalence of hearing loss in our population of screened newborns during the first 9 years of the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) program at University Hospital Sassari (Italy) (AOU Sassari), to analyze the risk factors involved, and to analyze our effectiveness in terms of referral rates and dropout rates. Methods: Monocentric retrospective study whose target population included all the newborns born or referred to our hospital between 2011 and 2019. Results: From 2011 to 2019, a total of 11,688 babies were enrolled in our screening program. In total, 3.9‱ of wellborn babies and 3.58% of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies had some degree of hearing loss. The most frequently observed risk factors among non-NICU babies were family history of hearing loss (3.34%) and craniofacial anomalies (0.16%), among NICU babies were low birth weight (54.91%) and prematurity (24.33%). In the multivariate analysis, family history of hearing loss (p < 0.001), NICU (p < 0.001), craniofacial anomalies (p < 0.001), low birth weight (<1500 g) (p = 0.04) and HIV (p = 0.03) were confirmed as risk factors. Conclusions: Our data are largely consistent with the literature and most results were expected, one relevant exception being the possible role of NICU as a confounding factor and the limited number of risk factors confirmed in the multivariate analysis.
RESUMEN
Recent studies have shown that infants with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) undergo catch-up growth during infancy. The aim of our study was to evaluate the postnatal growth in a cohort of IUGR infants born in a tertiary-level Obstetric University Hospital of Northern Sardinia. An observational retrospective study was conducted on 12 IUGR (group A) and 12 control infants (group B) by measuring the anthropometric parameters of weight (W), length (L) and head circumference (HC) from birth to the 3rd postnatal year. At birth, significant differences were found between group A and group B with regard to all the auxological parameters (W, mean 1846.6 versus 3170.8 g, p < 0.0001; HC, 30.1 versus 34.4 cm, p < 0.0001; L, mean 43.4 versus 49.4 cm, p < 0.0001). During the 1st year, 8 of 12 (70%) IUGR infants exhibited a significant catch-up growth in the 3 anthropometric parameters and a regular growth until the 3rd year of follow-up. The majority but not all infants born with IUGR in our series showed significant postnatal catch-up growth essentially during the first 12 months of life. An improved knowledge of the causes of IUGR will help to develop measures for its prevention and individualized treatment.