title: Ventilation tubes and cochlear implants: what do we do?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine current practice management with respect to ventilation tubes and cochlear implants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  All members of the American Neurotology Society were sent questionnaires.
  
  
  METHODS
  Members were asked a series of questions including how they deal with ventilation tubes before cochlear implantation, how they manage serous otitis media in patients undergoing cochlear implantation, and how they manage otitis prone children with cochlear implants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and twenty members returned questionnaires. Surgeons who replied perform an average of 25 implants per year: 15 in adults and 10 in children. Analysis of the data revealed a wide practice variation between surgeons. Fifty-six percent of surgeons will place a cochlear implant in a patient with a clean, dry ventilation tube in place. More than half the surgeons will place a ventilation tube in a child with serous otitis media, let the ear settle down, and perform the cochlear implant at a second operation. Wide variation in the management of otitis prone children with cochlear implants exists with respect to placement of ventilation tubes. Only 5% of surgeons reported any complications with cochlear implants that they attributed to ventilation tubes. There were a number who suggested their practice had changed since the recent identification of issues involving meningitis in implantees.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Wide practice variation exists with the management of ventilation tubes in cochlear implant patients. On the basis of the results of this survey, it is acceptable to place cochlear implants in patients with clean, dry ventilation tubes. It also acceptable to place ventilation tubes in otitis prone children with cochlear implants. Despite theoretic concerns, the reported incidence of complications is low.
authors.affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132, USA.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: Clough
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shelton
mesh_terms: D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D006801:Humans; D008876:Middle Ear Ventilation; D009462:Neurology; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000601:surgery*; D010036:Otolaryngology; D011364:Professional Practice; D012955:Societies, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires