Follow-up results of cochlear implantation in children with congenital single-sided deafness – Experiences since 2011

Introduction:

The aim of the present study is to investigate the follow-up results and benefits over time of children with congenital single-sided deafness (cSSD) treated with cochlear implantation (CI), regarding auditory rehabilitation, subjective benefits und usage behaviour.

Methods:

Eleven cSSD children (age at implantation: 1 – 13 years) performed age-adapted speech comprehension test in quiet preoperatively and at follow-up examinations (mean follow-up: 35 months). The subjective assessment with and without CI was conducted using the adapted version of the SSQ questionnaire (Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale) for children and adults. Furthermore, the wearing behavior including usage time of the CI was examined by means of the IIEH questionnaire (International Inventory for the Evaluation of Hearing Aids).

Results:

The follow-up of at least 19 months shows a very good speech understanding primarily in children with early CI surgery. However, even for children implanted at a later stage, some have good audiological results after a longer rehabilitation period compared to the results after 1 year. Two children no longer use the speech processor (SP). All other children use the SP all day. The subjective SSQ-results reflect the audiological results.

Conclusions:

The follow-up confirms that cSSD children with a shorter duration of deafness (DD) tend to present better results than children with longer DD. Nonetheless, the current results show that the controversially discussed upper age limit for CI surgery in cSSD can currently not be set, as rehabilitation with CI may be successful even for longer DD (> 5 years).

Publication History

Publication Date:
23 April 2019 (online)