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Hemangiomas in the pediatric middle ear are a rare occurrence. We present the case of a 3-year-old boy with unilateral hearing impairment and recurrent otitis media with effusion due to a hemangioma in the middle ear. This caused a venous sinus thrombosis, osteomyelitis, and mastoiditis. Interdisciplinary treatment was performed. This case shows that even benign lesions in the middle ear can cause severe, life-threatening complications due to the close proximity of important anatomic structures in the middle ear. Every case of asymmetric hearing loss should thus be examined in detail., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: In order to prepare for the introduction of a universal newborn hearing screening program on a larger scale, TEOAE and ABR were recorded on automated screening instruments from both ears of 501 newborns at the University Hospital Heidelberg over a period of 13 months. The parents of children in whom OAE and ABR could not be detected in both ears, were requested to allow a complete exploration of the auditory status of the children at the department of pediatric audiology., Subjects and Methods: Internally available data networks were used for the acquisition and evaluation of data and for the organization of tracking and follow-up. Of the children 35% exhibited risk factors for congenital hearing impairment., Results: The pass rate was 98.7% for the exclusion of binaural and 91.6% for monaural hearing disorders (TEOAE or ABR detectable). On the basis of the data it can be shown how pass rates can be optimized by selecting a suitable moment for the examination and by prescribing a minimum number of test repetitions (3 for TEOAE and 2 for AABR)., Conclusion: Quality control of screening programs should include these parameters and, in particular the number of repetitions of test measurements in all screening steps.