The effect of peri-intraventricular hemorrhage on the auditory pathway of infants.

OBJECTIVE

To verify the effect of peri-intraventricular hemorrhage on the auditory pathway of preterm infants.

METHOD: It is a non-concurrent cohort study. This study was conducted in a tertiary public. Preterm infants with peri-intraventricular hemorrhage comprised the study group, and preterm infants without peri-intraventricular hemorrhage were included as a comparison group, both were similar in relation to gestational age and risk indicators for hearing loss. Participants had to meet the following inclusion criteria: have been born at the study site, presence of otoacoustic emissions by transient stimulus in both ears and brainstem auditory evoked potentials with all components bilaterally identified.

RESULTS

44 infants with an average age of 3 months with peri-intraventricular hemorrhage and 2,6 months without peri-intraventricular hemorrhage met the inclusion criteria. Regarding the brainstem auditory evoked potentials results, a significant increase was observed in absolute latency values of waves I, III and V, as well as in the interpeak intervals I-III and I-V, bilaterally, in infants with peri-intraventricular hemorrhage.

CONCLUSION

This study concluded that infants with peri-intraventricular hemorrhage presented a delay in the neural conduction of sound, which justifies the monitoring of the auditory function in these infants during the period of language development.