Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs)

From World Health Organization data, the prevalence of hearing impairment among infants varies between 0.5 and 3.0 cases per thousand, but in children hospitalized in Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and in those with other risk factors, (small for gestational age, craniofacial abnormalities, intrauterine infections, family history of hearing loss, ototoxic drugs, mechanical ventilation, etc.) the prevalence is 10-20 times greater.

Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be defined as an intensive care unit for sick newborn who need specialized treatment. NICU combines equipment and the advanced technology with medical staff specially trained in the newborn care. The Joint Committee on Infants Hearing (JCIH) identified many risk factors in NICU infants like as prolonged mechanical ventilation, asphyxia, low birth weight and ototoxic medication and considers the only intensive care as a risk factor.

The present book focus attention on this "big" of hearing loss risk factor, starting from risk factors and screening strategies, highlighting the various neonatal levels of care, focusing on the treatment of infants with neural tube defects and future motor development of premature babies, until you get the attention of drug therapies used in the NICU.