An Examination of Acoustic Neuroprotection in the Neonate

Background: Hearing loss in neonates is more than 100 times that of the general pediatric population. Research suggests that there is a large amount of toxic noise exposure for these neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit and in the transport environments. Thus, acoustic neuroprotection, or auditory protection and support of neurodevelopment, is an important concept, particularly for neonates. Purpose: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to determine the possibility of successfully supporting acoustic neuroprotection and decreasing the ambient noise level to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Methods/Search Strategy: Across 3 databases (PubMed, Cochrane, and Science Direct), 21 articles were identified.Following PRISMA guidelines, the search was expanded to articles less than 20 years old due to lack of current studies. Inclusion criteria for articles were: infants less than 1 year old; written in English or translated to English; published within last 20 years unless seminal research; a unit quality improvement project; a literature review; a peer-reviewed article. Exclusion criteria were duplicated articles and qualitative studies. Decibel levels were extracted from articles in various neonate environments and then compared to standard recommendations. Results: Overall, the reviewed studies provided evidence that current interventions are unsuccessful in decreasing the amount of toxic noise exposure. Implications for Research and Practice: There are no “gold standard” interventions for protection of neonatal auditory systems, leading to inconsistent usage of current interventions and an overall lack of intervention focused research. More research is needed, particularly randomized controlled trials.