[Cochlear implant complications and failures].
BACKGROUND
Cochlear implantation is a relatively safe surgery performed on profound bilateral hearing loss patients. Its surgical indications have increased and the age of implantation has decreased over the last years. As with any other surgery, it presents complications; device failure is one of the most important, given its potential risk for the need to explant and reimplant the device.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate cochlear implant complications, determine possible causes and discuss medical and surgical management.


METHODS
A retrospective study of cochlear implants was performed. A total of 246 implants over an eleven-year period were evaluated. The sample consisted of 123 implants in patients younger than 10 years old, and 123 in those older than 10 years old; there were 138 males and 108 females. The devices implanted were 129 Advance Bionics, 95 MED-El, and 22 Cochlear. Complications and device failures were analysed.


RESULTS
A total of 28 complications were reported, which corresponds to 11.38% of all implants. Seven minor complications and 21 mayor complications were found. Device Failure was the most frequent complication, reported in 6.5% of all implants, and it was more frequent among children less than 10 years old.


CONCLUSIONS
Cochlear implant surgery has a low complication rate. Complications are usually resolved easily, but device failure continues to be a problem. It is important to keep studying the causes of such failure to find possible solutions that can lead to lowering and resolving its appearance.
Achiques
María T
MT
Servicio de Otorrinolaringología, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, España. achiquesmt@hotmail.com
Morant
Antonio
A
Muñoz
Noelia
N
Marco
Jaime
J
Llópez
Ignacio
I
Latorre
Emilia
E
Pitarch
Ignacia
I
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003054:Cochlear Implants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D012189:Retrospective Studies