Impact to the head increases cochlear implant reimplantation rate in children.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the outcome of cochlear implantation in children and to discuss the cause and management of cochlear reimplantation.


METHODS
Retrospective chart review.


METHODS
The medical records of 110 patients younger than 18 years of age, who underwent cochlear implantation at the Department of ORL, Head and Neck Surgery, of the University of Kiel, Germany, were reviewed for demographics, complications, and history of revision surgery. The patients had previously had implantation with either Nucleus (including the Contour) devices or MED-EL devices.


RESULTS
Length of use before cochlear explanation ranged from 4 days to 3.9 years. Reimplantation was caused by traumatic device failure, wrong electrode insertion and infection of implanted area. Results indicated a reimplantation rate of 5.4% in children compared to 0.8% in adults, mostly resulting from the greater risk of children receiving an impact to the head. Postoperative performance data showed no decrease in scores taken before failure.


CONCLUSIONS
Though young children who are developing their motor skills are probably at greater risk of a cochlear reimplantation resulting from device failure following head trauma, surgical revision with reimplantation can be performed safely and without decrement to performance.
Weise
Jan Bernd
JB
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Kiel, Arnold-Heller-Str. 14, 24105 Kiel, Germany. jweise@hno.uni-kiel.de
Muller-Deile
Joachim
J
Brademann
Goetz
G
Meyer
Jens Eduard
JE
Ambrosch
Petra
P
Maune
Steffen
S
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery; D003710:Demography; D004868:Equipment Failure; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies