Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2014; 18 - a2172
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1388979

The Mechanical Ventilation Necessity and Speech and Hearing Intercurrences in Patients with Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

Luíza Silva Vernier 1, Chenia Caldera Martinez 1, Deisi Cristina Gollo Marques Vidor 1
  • 1Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre

Introduction: Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (NHIE) often causes neonatal intercurrences and the mechanical ventilation (MV) necessity, which can interfere in speech-hearing development.

Objective: The objective of this study was to relate the MV necessity with the suspected hearing and oral motor sensory system (OMSS) disorders, and the need of referral to speech-hearing intervention in NHIE children.

Methods: It is a transversal study with data collection in 208 records (past 5 years) of NHIE newborns attended in a Pediatric Neurology Ambulatory of a hospital of Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil. A total of 111 (53.36%) were men, with mean gestational age of 34.86 weeks, mean weight of 2,392.31 g, mean Apgar score at first and fifth minutes of 5.25 and 7.18, respectively. For analysis, chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests were used, SPSS 16.0 software, assuming maximum significance level of 5% (p≤0.05N1). This study was approved by Ethics Committee in Research of the institution (record 311810).

Results: In this study, 80 patients (38.5%) necessitated MV. The variable MV necessity showed statistically significant association compared with the variables suspected of OMSS disorder (p = 0.033) and a trend of association relating to the variable suspected of hearing impairment (p = 0.074). We observed a significant association between the use of MV compared with mean weight (p = 0.001), mean gestational age (p = 0.001), mean Apgar score at first minute (p = 0.005) and fifth minute (p = 0.007). It was an observed relationship between MV necessity and referral to speech-hearing intervention (p = 0.048).

Conclusion: The results indicating that patients undergoing this procedure may have oral motor and hearing difficulties. It is suggested therapeutic follow-up to these cases and further investigations in studies with larger samples.

Keywords: hypoxic-ischemic, mechanical ventilation, speech, language, and hearing sciences.