title: Auditory neuropathy in a low-risk population: a review of the literature.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Collect all available published evidence on the prevalence of auditory neuropathy in the well baby population and calculate the contribution of this to the false negative rate of oto-acoustic emission based newborn hearing screening programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and EMBASE were searched for relevant articles published between 1996 and 2010. Medical Subject Headings terms included 'Auditory disease', 'Prevalence' and 'Child' and their relevant synonyms. Included were original studies, which focused on well babies and reported the prevalence of auditory neuropathy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 519 citations 4 articles met the inclusion criteria. The population based prevalence of auditory neuropathy in children in population hearing screening was found to vary between 0.006% (SD 0.006) and 0.03% (SD 0.02). The false negative rate, caused by missed children with auditory neuropathy, is between 4 and 17%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The available information on the prevalence of auditory neuropathy in the well baby population is poor. However, if oto-acoustic emission screening is used in the first stage of a neonatal hearing screening program, children with auditory neuropathy are missed. The cost-effectiveness of population-based screening using auditory brainstem response should be studied.
authors.affiliation: Willem-Alexander Children's Hospital, Sub Department of Social Pediatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands. a.m.h.korver@lumc.nl
authors.forename: A M H
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Korver
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: van Zanten
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meuwese-Jongejeugd
authors.forename: H L M
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: van Straaten
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Oudesluys-Murphy
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006313:Hearing Loss, Central / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment