INTRODUCTION: The presence of low weight at birth (LW), as well as cleft lip and palate (CLP), end up making children more prone to auditory alterations. OBJECTIVE: Verify and compare the hearing of children with cleft lip and palate with and without low weight at birth in the conventional audiological evaluation. METHOD: A retrospective and comparative study was made concerning gender, weight at birth, presence/absence of CLP and the result of audiometry and immittance measurements. Three groups of children were formed. G1 with 23 CLP and LW, G2 with 25 CLP but not LW and G3 with 25 children with neither CLP or LW. RESULTS: There wasn't found any statistically significant differences between the groups in none of the following comparisons: the weight and gender, gender and right/left ear, in relation to the kind of tympanometric curve, presence of hearing loss, type of hearing loss and degree of the hearing loss. CONCLUSION: A greater auditory impairment, evidenced by the presence of light to moderate degree of conductive hearing loss, was found in children with cleft lip and palate (G1 and G2), regardless of the presence of low weight at birth, when compared to those without this kind of malformation.
child; cleft palate; weight at birth
