Audiologic findings in infants with Down syndrome

Abstract

Introduction: Down syndrome involves morphological characteristic that predispose the arise of hearing alteration. It is crucial for the overall development of the individual an early identification of hearing alteration, and Newborn Hearing Screening would be the first step to early identifying any alteration. However, there are few studies that describe the hearing of this population in the first months of life. Objectives: To evaluate the audiological findings in infants with Down syndrome by Newborn Hearing Screening and audiological evaluation, considering the variables gender, risk factors and gestational age. Methods: Research of experimental basis, descriptive, cross-cut, consisting of children with Down syndrome, who remained in the ICU and/or intermediate care. Hearing screening was performed and, independent of the results, children were referred for audiological diagnosis. Results: In the Newborn Hearing Screening 71,4% of the children failed, there wasn’t significant connection of faults with the correlated variables. From the analysis of the auditory test was found normal bilateral hearing in 42,85%, and conductive hearing loss in 57,14%. Conclusion: The most of children with Down syndrome fail in auditory screening and in more than half of children, the hearing loss was found, and conductive hearing loss was the most frequent.