Deafness in Children of Very Low Birth Weight

Abstract

Of 1,081 surviving children with a birth weight of 4 lb. or less, 19 (1.8%) have perceptive deafness of a moderate or severe degree; 2 had athetoid cerebral palsy and 1 spastic monoplegia affecting a lower limb. No motor disorder was present in the remainder. Moderate to severe high-frequency hearing loss with little loss at low frequencies was the commonest type of deafness found. Only one case of deafness occurred in a twin; this represented a prevalence of 0.3%. In single children with gestations lasting at least 33 weeks the prevalence was 0.6% but in those with shorter periods of gestation it was 4.1%. In these very immature children deafness was significantly associated with cyanotic attacks in the first few weeks of life. Although the two children with athetoid cerebral palsy had severe jaundice, deafness was not significantly related to jaundice. Associations with both streptomycin therapy and prolonged oxygen administration were probably due to these treatments being given to the children whose clinical condition was worst. It is concluded that anoxia in the early postnatal life of very immature infants may cause deafness.