الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Addingsecondstage automated auditory brainstemresponse (AABR) test for infants who failed theinitial OAE testhas been shown to reduce falsereferrals to the hearing clinic.Infants with hearingloss may be missed by a 2-stage hearingscreening although they pass the automated ABRtest. In this systematic review, we offered a balanced document with the best evidence on efficiency of AABR for neonatal hearing loss screening.
The use of sensitive and specific hearing screening measures is key for a successful and efficacious newborn hearing screening (NHS) program. Evidence suggests that a variety of objective screening measures, such as otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) or automated auditory brainstem response may be employed within such a program, their use is stated to be possible either in isolation or in combination with each other.
Application of inclusion and exclusion criteria to study abstracts yielded 16 articles. A total of 280 studies were identified from the database search. After review, a total of 16 studies consisting of 462917neonates undergoing screening of hearing loss by automated audiometry brain stem response.
The inclusion criteria of the neonates included in the studies such as neonates with Median income of 72% or less, who remained in the NICU for at least 48 hours, have at least 37 weeks gestational age at birth, have more than 24 hours of life, or Healthy newborns without a history of NICU hospitalization born. Most of the studies referred the cases with failure to pass automated auditory brainstem response test to confirmatory diagnostic testing with auditory brainstem response for further rehabilitation(hearing aids or cochlear implant) and speech rehabilitation process.
The target population of the current review was neonates aged from hours to four months.
The hearing loss prevalence ranging in the sixteen included studies from 0.06% to 24.3%. The sensitivity of AABR ranged from 85% to 100%. While the specificity ranged from50% to 100% in the present review.
The coverage rate of the hearing screening using AABR in the 16 studies ranged from 3.9 % to 100% with an overall mean coverage rate of 75.92%. There were 8 studies showed coverage rate of AABR higher than 80%
Data regarding universal hearing screening and prevalence of deafness among healthy newborn is lacking. Follow up studies till audio logical recovery could be done with emphasis on the importance of early screening.
This study concluded that AABR is efficient screening procedure for hearing loss among neonates with very good sensitivity and excellent specificity. AABR was with high coverage rate and low referral rate.