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Middle ear effusion and newborn hearing screening

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

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.

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Funding

The study was partially funded by the dual Faculty of Social Welfare and Health sciences and the Rambam Health Care Campus grant awarded to Hanin Karawani and Arie Gordin.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Hanin Karawani and Wisam Matanis have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Hanin Karawani

  2. Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel

    Wisam Matanis, Shorook Na’ara & Arie Gordin

Authors
  1. Hanin Karawani
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  2. Wisam Matanis
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  3. Shorook Na’ara
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  4. Arie Gordin
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Contributions

Conceptualization: HK, WM, AG; data curation: HK, WM, SN, AG; formal analysis: HK, WM, AG; formal analysis and investigation: HK, WM, SN, AG; writing—original draft preparation: HK, WM; writing—review and editing: HK, WM, AG; resources: HK, AG; supervision: HK, AG.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanin Karawani.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of Rambam Health Care Campus (0671-18-RMB).

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Karawani, H., Matanis, W., Na’ara, S. et al. Middle ear effusion and newborn hearing screening. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 280, 643–649 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07524-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07524-2

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