Outcome of early cochlear implantation.
BACKGROUND
Universal newborn hearing screening facilitates early detection of congenital hearing loss. A child found to have severe to profound hearing loss may require a cochlear implant to access sounds in the speech frequency range.


METHODS
This retrospective study compared the speech perception outcomes of children implanted at 2 years and below (C1) with those implanted later (C3). Baseline and post-implant speech perception scores were recorded using IT-MAIS, TACL-R or PPVT. The percentage of improvement was calculated for each group and statistical significance was determined using the Student's t-test.


RESULTS
The median follow-up period for C1 (n = 29) and C3 (n = 29) was 29 months (range, 6 to 29 months) and 20 months (range, 5 to 32 months) respectively, which was not statistically significant. Although both groups recorded post-implant improvement of speech reception scores, the difference in the degrees of improvement was statistically significant (P = 0.034).


CONCLUSIONS
More rapid development of speech perceptive skills was achieved in children who were implanted early. Early implantation therefore, enables children to develop good core listening skills and to potentially develop spoken language at a young age. This enhances successful integration into mainstream pre-schools which provide the environment for the early nurturing of social and cognitive skills.
Low
Wong-Kein
WK
Centre for Hearing & Ear Implants, Department of Otolaryngology, Singapore General Hospital, Outram Road, Singapore 169608. low.wong.kein@sgh.com.sg
bin Iskandar
Mohamad Fahamy
MF
Sarepaka
Gopal Krishna
GK
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome