To estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment and significant risk factors for congenital loss in a tertiary hospital in South India.

Over 3 years, a prospective analytical study was conducted in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in a tertiary hospital in South India. All newborns born in the hospital or those referred were initially screened using the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAE) in a soundproof room by a trained audiologist at 24 to 48 hours of birth. Results were either “PASS” or “REFER.” Those who did not pass the initial screening were retested with TEOAE at their 6-week vaccination appointment. If the second result was “REFER,” the neonate underwent Brain Evoked Response Auditory (BERA) for confirmation.

A total of 3,679 neonates (1,931 males, 1,748 females) underwent TEOAE testing. Of those, 2,426 (65.9%) passed the first test, and 1,253 (34.1%) were referred. The second TEOAE test was done for 1,174 patients, with results of 1,013 (86.29%) as “PASS” and 161 (13.71%) as “REFER.” The BERA results of 95 neonates showed normal in 84 (88.42%), and 11 (11.58%) had profound hearing loss. The prevalence of hearing impairment in the present study was 0.29% (95% CI: 0.2–0.6%). Major risk factors such as maternal infections, like toxoplasmosis, others (syphilis, hepatitis B), rubella, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex (TORCH), craniofacial anomalies, low birth weight < 1,500 g, low Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity and Respiration (APGAR) scores (0–4 at 1 minute and 0–6 at 5 minutes), and mechanical ventilation lasting for 5 days or longer, were significantly associated with hearing impairment at p < 0.05.

Newborn hearing screenings must be made mandatory, irrespective of risk factors. This way, early diagnosis and necessary interventions can be implemented.

Ethics approval was obtained for the study from the institutional ethics committee.

Written informed consent for publication of their clinical details and/or clinical images was obtained from the patients. A copy of the consent form is available for review by the Editor of this journal.

The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

All the authors have contributed equally to the present case report. KN and KR are the major contributors to writing the manuscript. AK, SG, SKS, AA, and LP participated in writing, editing, and data interpretation.

Data will be available upon request to the corresponding author.

Editor-in-Chief: Geraldo Pereira Jotz.

Received: 21 August 2024

Accepted: 03 May 2025

Article published online:
11 March 2026

© 2026. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Bibliographical Record
K. Ngohlaki, Kalaiarasi Raja, Akshat Kushwaha, H.T. Lalthanthuami, Lokesh Kumar Penubarthi, Sunil Kumar Saxena, Arun Alexander, Sivaraman Ganesan. Universal Screening of Newborns from a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India: A Prospective Analytical Study. Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2026; 30: s00451809928.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1809928