Heart surgery in infants may cause deafness
Children who have undergone heart
surgery as infants may risk hearing loss by the age of four, in addition to
poor language skills and cognitive problems, researchers have found.
Researchers discovered that around
21 percent of 348 pre-schoolers, who had survived cardiac surgery, suffered
hearing loss. This rate was 20 times higher than that prevalent among the
general population.
For the study, published in the
Journal of Pediatrics, the researchers analyzed neurodevelopmental outcomes in
these children. A total of 75 children were found to have developed hearing
loss.
Other factors common among the
hearing loss cases were gestational age younger than 37 weeks, a confirmed
genetic anomaly and longer postoperative length of stay.
The researchers found children with
hearing loss had lower scores on measures of language skills, cognition (IQ
testing), and executive function and attention.
The study suggested that children
who undergo heart surgery should have their hearing evaluated by age 24 to 30
months, to increase their chances of receiving a timely medical intervention.
"Children born with
life-threatening heart defects require a great deal of sophisticated care
before and after surgery," said the lead author of the study Nancy B.
Burnham, a nurse-practitioner in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
17.02.2018
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