An Oto-Audiological Evaluation of Forty-Four Premature Children

During the past three decades, a number of clinical and statistical studies have been done on the prematurely born population. However, very little attention has been directed toward exploring the auditory sensory modality in this particular group of children. Previous emphasis has been directed toward investigating the effects of oxygen therapy during incubation of the premature neonate. Medical findings have described in great detail the serious visual impairment which occurs as a direct result of an overexposure of the infant to oxygen during incubation.¹⁻³More recent studies have examined such interesting factors as neurological sequelae,⁴psychosocial adjustment,⁵and physical development⁶in this select pediatric population. Johnsen's⁷results in Denmark, however, served to highlight the fact that a certain percentage of children in his study demonstrating hearing losses also presented a medical history of prematurity. For the most part, it was our feeling that this particular