Is maternal preeclampsia risk factor for neonatal hearing loss?

Objectives: Hearing loss is one of the most common congenital anomalies among neonates. A normal capacity in early infantile age is extremely important for social, emotional and mental development, as well as speech and language progress in children. The newborn hearing screening programme is very functional in early diagnosis. Maternal preeclampsia is highly associated with neonatal mortality and morbidity from iatrogenic prematurity. Although preeclampsia has not been described so far in the literature as a prenatal complication that creates the risk of hearing loss, in this study we aimed to determine if preeclampsia is a risk factor for hearing impairment in newborns. Methodology: Infants who were born between January 2009 and March 2014 were included in this retrospective study. Infants were divided into two groups. Study group 1 consisted of 68 children whose mothers had preeclampsia, while study group 2 consisted of 100 randomized children from healthy mothers. We compared the automated transient evoked otoacoustic emission results of infants born to preeclamptic mothers to the results of those born to healthy mothers. Results: Eight of the 68 neonates who had preeclamptic mothers had at least one risk factor and were excluded from the study. The study was conducted with the remaining 60 and 100 neonates from preeclamptic and healthy mothers, respectively. All of the healthy mothers’ babies, as well as the infants of preeclamptic mothers without risk factors, passed the TEOAE test. Conclusion: As an overall conclusion, we can say that preeclampsia can only cause neonatal hearing impairment by causing an increased prematurity risk.