Long-term follow-up of cochlear implant users with ossified cochlea.
OBJECTIVE
Cochlear implantation surgery in ossified cochlea is a challenge, even for the experienced otologist. Short-term assessments of auditory perception show that implantation in partial or even extensive ossified cochlea could be achieved with varying success, but no long-term follow-up results have been published yet.


METHODS
This paper proposes a retrospective review of eight Nucleus cochlear implant users with ossified cochlea who have been followed on a 12- to 60-month period.


METHODS
Auditory performances of users are reported at each control on a scale of 100 units divided into 4 skill zones of 25 units based on Erber's proposition, that is, detection, discrimination, identification, and recognition.


RESULTS
Three of the eight subjects showed some progression in their auditory performances during the follow-up. The five other subjects showed no long-term progress in their auditory performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Open-set comprehension could be achieved with the insertion of 9 to 10 electrodes of the Nucleus device. Auditory performance in users with ossified cochlea seems to be influenced by the same factors as in users with patent cochlea.
Trinh
B T
BT
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec, Pavillon Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. Québec.
Bergeron
F
F
Ferron
P
P
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003638:Deafness / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009999:Ossification, Heterotopic / Q000150:complications*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome