Progressive hearing loss in an infant in a neonatal intensive care unit as revealed by auditory evoked brainstem responses

We herein report a case of a 14-month-old infant who revealed a progressive hearing loss by repeated auditory evoked brainstem responses (ABR) during his 1 year stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). He was born prematurely with asphyxia, hyperbilirubinemia and respiratory distress. During his 1 year stay in the NICU he was under constant mechanical ventilation. Repeated ABRs over this year initially showed normal waves but subsequently demonstrated progressive hearing impairment (HI) leading finally to no responses. Possible causes of this progressive deafness (PF) include the multiple problems of asphyxia, hyperbilirubinemia and pulmonary disorders.