POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF KANAMYCIN AND INCUBATION IN NEWBORN CHILDREN WITH LOW BIRTH WEIGHT

ABSTRACT: In an acoustico‐vestibular follow‐up investigation of 91 four‐ to six‐year‐old children with birth weight below 2 000 g, the same incidence of sensorineural hearing loss (19 %) was found in 54 children treated with kanamycin in the neonatal period as in a group of 37 infants not treated with kanamycin. When comparing a group of children treated with both kanamycin and incubator (54 children) with a group treated with incubator only (16 children), no definite signs of synergism between incubator noise and kanamycin were found. However, the 5 cases of moderate or severe hearing loss all belonged to the group treated with both incubator and kanamycin. These 5 children had more severe neonatal complications, especially apnea, cyanotic spells and hyperbilirubinemia, which may increase the severity of the hearing loss.