Speech and hearing problems in a high-risk population.

A retrospective study was conducted on 85 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) survivors, all of whom had been mechanically ventilated. Mean birth weight was 1,726 +/- 778 g and mean gestational age was 32.3 +/- 3.8 weeks. Infants were evaluated for various risk factors previously reported to cause hearing loss. Language development was assessed using the Early Language Milestone (ELM) scale and hearing was tested by free field responses (FFR). Twenty-four children (28.2%) had an abnormal ELM or FFR result. Seventeen children failed an FFR; 14 of these were normal on follow-up and 3 defaulted. There was thus no permanent sensorineural hearing loss in the sample assessed. Eleven children failed an ELM, of whom 5 had speech problems on long-term follow-up. There was a significant correlation between the ELM and neurodevelopmental scores (P = 0.045). Intraventricular haemorrhage also correlated significantly with the ELM score (P = 0.0016). Thus the overall incidence of hearing loss in this NICU population was low, but there was a significant occurrence of speech problems, which correlated with neurological damage.