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Soft Cochlear Implantation Technique Preserves Residual Hearing In Severely Hearing Impaired Patients

A soft surgery approach to cochlear implantation could preserve residual hearing in severely hearing-impaired children and adults.

Researchers from the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, in Warsaw , Poland, enrolled seven children and 19 post-lingually deafened adults, all with residual hearing.

Cochlear implant surgery with a Med-El Combi 40/40+ standard electrode array was performed, using the soft surgery approach. Pure-tone audiometry thresholds were re-assessed at least one month after surgery.
Sixty-two percent of patients retained their residual hearing within 5 dB HL of pre-operative scores. Nineteen percent lost all measurable residual hearing after the implant (5/26 patients).

"Preservation of residual hearing is an important consideration in cochlear implantation in the light of changing selection criteria for cochlear implant candidates, and as younger children are receiving implants," especially because the long-term effects of inner ear damage due to the trauma of insertion of electrodes is unknown, the researchers note.

"This finding suggests a good prognosis for future possibilities of re-implantation," they conclude.
ORL 2002;64;247-253. "Preservation of Residual Hearing in Children and Post-Lingually Deafened Adults after Cochlear Implantation: An Initial Study"

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