NEONATAL HEARING SCREENING WITH AN AUTOMATED AUDITORY BRAIN-STEM RESPONSE SCREENER IN THE INFANTS HOME

Universal neonatal hearing screening is essential if all infants with congenital or perinatally acquired hearing impairment are to begin tre atment before the age of 6 months to facilitate development of speech, language, communication and academic skills. Screening cannot always take place in hospital because of the increase in very short-stay deli veries. Therefore screening in the home may be necessary to achieve a high level of screening. We describe a feasibility study with an autom ated auditory brainstem response (AABR) screener in the infant's home as part of the service offered by the Well Baby Clinics in the Netherl ands. Of the 277 infants who completed the screening 266 had the resul t ''pass'', 7 ''refer'' and 4 had inconclusive results. The mean time needed per screening was 18 min. This study shows that neonatal hearin g screening by nurses using an AABR infant screener in the home is fea sible.