title: Assessment of early auditory and visual abilities of extremely premature infants.
abstract: The early auditory and visual abilities of 47 extremely premature infants (31 born less than or equal to 28 weeks gestation) were assessed with a bell, a light and an optokinetic nystagmus drum. All the infants altered to the bell and blinked to the light from 25 weeks postconceptional age (PCA) and beyond. A few infants at first had only a change in heart rate or respiratory rate in response to the bell, or required a high-intensity light to elicit a blink. The majority appeared to habituate to the bell and light during their first examination at one week of age. None of the infants blinked in response to a threatening gesture. Optokinetic nystagmus could be elicited as early as 30 weeks PCA, could be elicited in the majority by 36 weeks PCA, and universally by term (40 weeks PCA). The responses of 15 fullterm newborn infants were not significantly different from those of the preterm infants at term. Alerting to a bell, blinking to light and habituation to both are simple bedside maneuvers for assessing extremely premature infants less than 30 weeks PCA. Optokinetic nystagmus may be useful in assessing the visual abilities of premature infants closer to term.
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001288:Attention; D001767:Blinking; D001794:Blood Pressure; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D009760:Nystagmus, Physiologic; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014787:Vision Tests