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COVID-19 Infection During Pregnancy and Hearing Loss in Infants: A Clinical Study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Aims

To find the prevalence of hearing loss in children born to mothers who had COVID-19 infection during pregnancy.

Materials and Methods

This was a prospective observational study conducted on 1960 babies born to mothers who were COVID positive during their pregnancy .All children born to RTPCR positive COVID-19 pregnant women were included in the study and babies who had any other risk factor for neonatal SNHL were excluded from the study. All the babies were subjected to OAE, and if it came pass, the test was repeated 2 weeks later. Those patients with repeat OAE also as refer were subjected to Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry and findings correlated.

Results

The study included 1960 neonates who were subjected to neonatal hearing screening by OAE. There were 1020 males (52.04%) and 940(47.96%) females and 80 cases of consanguinity. Fifty babies were excluded due to comorbidities. In the initial OAE test 380 neonates failed (19.9%) following which BERA was done and ten patients was found to Sensorineural hearing loss.

Conclusion

The prevalence of hearing loss in our study on babies born to mothers with COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is 0.005. Although these primary results from our study does not indicate any immediate effect of SARS-COV-2 maternal infection on neonatal hearing. More children need to be tested and followed up over an extended period of time to detect any possible delayed auditory effects. Those patients who were identified to have hearing loss in our study will have to be on long term follow-up as we see long terms effects on cognition, memory, heart health, etc. in COVID survivors.

Level of evidence

Level 1.

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Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of ENT, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Pillaiyarkuppam, Pondicherry, India

    Rethesh Senthil,  Abirami, Nikhil Sivanand & Padmanabhan Karthikeyan

Authors
  1. Rethesh Senthil
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  2. Abirami
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  3. Nikhil Sivanand
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  4. Padmanabhan Karthikeyan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rethesh Senthil.

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Ethics Approval

The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (21/2022).

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Informed consent was obtained from legal guardian.

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The participant has consented to the submission of the case report to the journal.

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Senthil, R., Abirami, Sivanand, N. et al. COVID-19 Infection During Pregnancy and Hearing Loss in Infants: A Clinical Study. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-024-04483-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-024-04483-4

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