Causes of infant hearing loss
Sometimes parents can be left feeling lost, confused, and maybe even guilty after they find out that their child has a hearing loss. Much of this confusion may arise from not knowing why the hearing loss is present. There are many different causes for a hearing loss, but not all hearing losses have a known cause. In fact, about 25% of hearing loss has an unknown cause. Knowing the cause of the hearing loss can often help parents, physicians, speech and language pathologists, and others to make the processes of early intervention effective and successful.
- Viral Infection: Some cases of hearing loss are cause by a viral infection. The primary infections are Toxoplasmosis (Cat-scratch disease), Syphilis, Rubella (German Measles, Cytomegalovirus(CMV), and Herpes
- Hyerbilirubinemia (jaunice) is a virus that may be severe enough to requies a blood transfusion that can result in hearing loss
- Ototoxic Medications: It is possible that ototoxic medications can also cause a hearing loss. These are usually used at birth to treat a life threatening sickness or disease
- There is a family of antibiotics called aminoglycosides with names such as gentamycin, tobramycin, kanamycin. and streptomycin.
- Bacterial Meningitis: Another cause of infant hearing loss includes bacterial meningitis. This is an infection of the lining of the spinal cord which means it can have an affect on sensory organs, including the ear.
- Genetics: About 50% of the genetic hearing loss, and of this 50%, 70% are recessive, 15% are dominant, and 15% have other causes.
- The most common recessive gene that can cause hearing loss is called Connexion 26
- Auditory Neruropathy: With this hearing disorder, the cochlea seems to work properly, but the probelm occurs when it is sent to the brain to be processed. This can be caused by trauma or disease. The most common causes include
- Lack of oxygen (anoxia) at birth
- Hyperbilirubinemia requiring blood transfusion, associated with severe jaundice during the newborn period
- Infectious Disease such as mumps
- Immune Disorders
- Nonsyndromic Recessive Auditory Neuropathy (see Genetics Section for a further explanation of these terms)
- Neurological disorders such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome or Friedreich’s Ataxia.
- Information found from
http://www.babyhearing.org/HearingAmplification/NewbornScreening/index.asp
