The additional hospital costs and outcome of the LAURA Cochlear Implant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University Hospitals, Leuven.
The additional hospital costs and the effects of cochlear implantation are described. From the start in 1994 until 1996 ten patients, 8 adults and 2 children, received a cochlear implant after careful preoperative selection. Only the 8 deaf adults implanted with the LAURA cochlear implant in the department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University Hospital Leuven will be included in this retrospective analysis. In this study, the additional hospital costs associated with cochlear implantations are estimated. In estimating the costs, a differentation is made between 'fixed' costs and 'variable' costs. In general the costs of cochlear implantation is high: an average cost of 1,186,741, -Bef per implanted adult and a direct fixed cost of 262,880, -Bef for the computer requisites. To evaluate the effect of cochlear implantation a standard test, the AN-test battery, is used. In general, the cochlear implant enhances the speech perception scores in the postlingually deafened as well as in the prelingually deafened adults. After intensive training, all implanted adults of the University hospital Leuven could recognize the segmental aspects of speech with scores above the level of significance. The cochlear implant has also a positive psychological and social impact.
Vantrappen
G
G
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
Kesteloot
K
K
Feenstra
L
L
D000328:Adult; D001530:Belgium; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000191:economics*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery*; D013502:General Surgery; D006257:Head / Q000601:surgery*; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D009333:Neck / Q000601:surgery*; D010036:Otolaryngology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome