Comparison of auditory brainstem response and behavioral screening in neonates.

This paper reports on two studies, one in Halifax and the other in Ottawa, which compared behavioral methods and BERA in the screening of hearing loss in neonates. The Halifax study used BERA as the screening procedure for infants of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and as a supplementary procedure to behavioral screening test for non-NICU but "at risk" infants. The results of this study indicate false positive rates with the behavioral test of 86.1 and 50.5% for NICU and at risk groups respectively. The Ottawa study evaluated the Crib-o-gram as a screening test for NICU infants using BERA as the standard. The results of this study indicated that approximately one third of babies with normal BERA thresholds failed Crib-o-gram screening and that Crib-o-gram could identify moderately/severe losses.