Revision cochlear implant surgery in children: the Johns Hopkins experience.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the efficacy of revision cochlear implantation (RCI) and to identify clinical and device-related factors predictive of RCI outcome.


METHODS
Retrospective case series with attempted correlation to ex vivo device analysis.


METHODS
Academic tertiary referral center.


METHODS
Children (<18 yr) who underwent RCI in a tertiary-care center.


METHODS
Revision cochlear implantation with multichannel cochlear implant.


METHODS
Open-set speech perception testing and subjective report by child, family, teacher, or therapist; patient report of symptom resolution.


RESULTS
During the 15-year period, 13% of pediatric CI surgeries were revised (at an average of 3.4 yr after initial operation). Hard failures (42%), suspected device failure (29%), and extracochlear electrodes (16%) were the most common indications for RCI. Most hard and suspected device failure cases (n = 37; 84%) reported a return to previous peak performance within 18 months of RCI. Previous peak performance was more likely to be achieved or exceeded in younger than in older children. A decline in speech perception was a stronger predictor of successful outcome (100%) than chronic underperformance (57%) among children with suspected device failure. Preoperative integrity testing was only moderately predictive of functional results or findings at ex vivo device analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
Revision cochlear implantation should be considered when longitudinal clinical assessment reveals an unfavorable trajectory in the development of receptive communication skills. Device testing provides important, but not definitive, supporting data. Revision cochlear implantation as guided by device and patient factors can exert a positive impact on access to verbal language and therefore its development. A delay to act can have lasting negative consequences because benefits seem to diminish with age.
Marlowe
Andrea L
AL
The Listening Center, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA.
Chinnici
Jill E
JE
Rivas
Alejandro
A
Niparko
John K
JK
Francis
Howard W
HW
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D004868:Equipment Failure; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome