Purpose: Middle ear effusion (MEE) is one of the reasons for screening failure and may require prolonged follow-up due to conductive hearing loss. We aimed to examine at 1-year follow-up, the fate of MEE.
Methods: From medical charts, computerized data were collected retrospectively of newborns born in the years 2012-2013 in Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa city, Israel, who failed the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS), and follow-up hearing evaluation data were extracted.
Results: Of 9527 newborns born in 2012-2013 in our institution, 144 [1.5%] failed the UNHS, and 46 were eventually diagnosed with conductive hearing loss caused by MEE. Spontaneous MEE clearance was recorded in 12 [26%], while 26 [57%] patients had persistent effusion that required further follow-up (10 [22%] required insertion of ventilation tubes and 16 [35%] were referred for further follow-up); 8 [17%] were lost to follow-up.
Conclusion: Congenital MEE causing conductive hearing loss and UNHS failure is persistent and resolves at lower rates than non-congenital MEE.
Keywords: Conductive hearing loss; Congenital; Middle ear effusion in infants; Otitis media; Screening; The universal newborn hearing screening.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.