[Hearing screening in children with risk factors of hearing loss in the area 3 of Madrid]. / Screening auditivo en niños con factores de riesgo de hipoacusia en el área 3 de Madrid.

ABSTRACT

The early identification of the hearing loss is very important to begin a early rehabilitation and to get a normal development of the language. Because of reason, the newborn hearing screening started, mainly in cases with risk factors. The objective of this report is to study the incidence of hearing loss in children with risk factors in the area 3 of Madrid. We realized hearing screening in 138 children in a period of 3.5 years, by otoacoustic emissions in younger 1 year and auditory brain stem evoked response in older 1 year. The results show that the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss is 4.34% of cases in children with risk factors, and more specifically 2.8% of bilateral profound hearing loss, and too, we detected 6.5% of transmisive hearing loss. The age of identification of hearing loss decreased to 6 months with the hearing screening programs. These results support the need of realization of hearing screening programs with obligatory character, though we advocate for the universal screening to include all cases of hearing loss without risk factors.