title: Universal newborn hearing screening: the experience of the University Hospital of Parma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early diagnosis of congenital deafness is fundamental to minimize the negative consequences on a child's educational and psychosocial development. To lower the age of hearing-impaired children at the time of diagnosis, universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) is considered essential. The aim of this study was to review tha data of the first 4 years of implementation of UNHS in the University Hospital of Parma.
  
  
  METHODS
  11624 infants born between February 2010 and December 2013 were included into the study. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions were used as screening test. When the newborn had failed at the initial test, he was re-tested within 3 weeks from birth. If the same result was obtained at the second step, the newborns were referred for clinical auditory brainstem response. We calculated quality indicators and compared them with international guidelines.
  
  
  RESULTS
  11592 infants (99.7%) were screened during the birth admission. 10359 (88.5%) were well-babies, while 1233 (11.5%) had audiological risk factors. Among 11592 newborns screened, 42 (3.59‰) had a final diagnosis of sensorineural hearing loss. The incidence of deafness was 1.64‰ in well-babies, and 2.02% in neonates with audiological risk factors. Only 71 infants (0.6%) did not complete the screening program. False-positive rate was 1.7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The analysis of benchmarks and outcomes of UNHS demonstrated the good quality of our hearing screening program. Introduction of automated auditory brainstem response as well as enhanced enrollment of patients who do not complete the screening could further improve the quality program.
authors.affiliation: Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Maternal and Child Department, University of Parma - Parma, Italy. cinzia.magnani@unipr.it.
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Magnani
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bacchi
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Borghini
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Delmonte
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fava
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Occasio
authors.forename: Annarita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarti
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vincenti
mesh_terms: D001300:Audiometry, Evoked Response; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000151:congenital* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies