Partial deafness cochlear implantation in children.
OBJECTIVE
Partial deafness cochlear implantation and electric-acoustic stimulation have proven to be a useful method of treating adults with a ski-slope type hearing loss. Good hearing preservation and speech perception outcomes have been reported. This study aims to assess partial deafness cochlear implantation in children.


METHODS
Nine children, ranging in age from 4.2 to 12 years, received a cochlear implant following the round window surgical technique for partial deafness cochlear implantation. Hearing preservation was assessed by pure-tone audiometry and speech perception outcomes were measured using monosyllable word tests in quiet and noise. Data are available for most children up to a period of 1 year.


RESULTS
Hearing could be preserved partially in all cases, however, one child does not have sufficient preservation to make use of electric-acoustic stimulation. The eight children with sufficiently preserved hearing either use the natural low frequency hearing in combination with a cochlear implant to hear or use the DUET combined hearing system. Speech perception tests showed improvement in quiet and noise over time.


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that partial deafness cochlear implantation is a viable treatment method in children. However, surgery should only be conducted by an experienced surgeon and parents need to be carefully counselled about the risks and benefits of partial deafness cochlear implantation.
Skarzynski
Henryk
H
Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland.
Lorens
Artur
A
Piotrowska
Anna
A
Anderson
Ilona
I
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D046088:Hearing Loss, Unilateral / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013067:Speech Perception; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test