Hearing screening clinic at the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria

Auditory screening through otoacoustic emissions, is a quick, safe and inexpensive study economic and safe for pediatric patients. Evaluation of hearing status of hospitalized children is not done routinely. It was only done in cancer patients. A Hearing Screening Clinic (HSC) was created a year ago in the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria (INP) (National Institute of Pediatrics) to monitor, prevent and treat hearing problems of hospitalized patients in any department. The largest number of studies, were done in patients of the Intensive Care Unit but few had hearing problems. In contrast, several patients in the Department of Cardiology where 100% of patients were assessed had some degree of audiological disfunction caused by various drugs. The INP is the only pediatric hospital where audiologic monitoring is carried out in every hospitalized patient.