Hearing Problems Subsequent to Neonatal Hemolytic Disease or Hyperbilirubinemia

Abstract

RESULTS of studies of children with hearing problems thought to be etiologically related to hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) have varied widely. Cavanaugh¹reported an incidence as low as 4%; Crabtree and Gerrard,²80%. Good-hill³reporting from this institution found hearing loss in two of 15 children known to have had HDN; both had cerebral palsy. He subsequently distributed a questionnaire to a school for the deaf and found that, among children with a history of HDN who did not have cerebral palsy, the incidence of hearing loss was low. Phelps⁴described the hearing loss as being of a kind peculiar to children with athetoid cerebral palsy. Rosen⁵found that the hearing loss fluctuated, which made diagnosis difficult; and Myklebust⁶was of the opinion that aphasia or deafness or both might be present. The studies reviewed had the following two factors in common: