American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on School Health: Impedance bridge (tympanometer) as a screening device in schools.

This statement has been approved by the Council on Child and Adolescent Health. PEDIATRICS (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 1987 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. screening by pure-tone audiometry be used as the primary method of detection of hearing loss in school children; (4) the impedance bridge not be used as a replacement for audiometnic screening, because it will not detect sensory neural hearing loss and may lead to overreferral of children with asymptomatic middle ear effusion; (5) any persistent abnormality detected by either the impedance bridge or pure-tone audiometry should result in a prompt referral to the child’s pediatrician.