Cochlear implant failure, revision, and reimplantation.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the long-term adverse cochlear implant (CI) outcomes resulting in revision surgery including CI reimplantation (CIR).


METHODS
Pediatric and adult patients requiring revision procedures after CI placement.


METHODS
Revision surgery on cochlear implant patients.


METHODS
Device type, length of total device follow-up, time to device failure, cause for failure, peak pre-CIR and post-CIR audiometric performance, rate of surgical site complications, and operative findings.


RESULTS
A total of 317 patients, receiving 439 CIs between January 2000 and April 2012, met inclusion criteria for this series. For the patients implanted at our institution, the revision surgery rate was 4.1%, with a CIR rate of 3.0%. The CIR rates among the pediatric and adult populations were 5.0% and 1.3%, respectively (p = 0.0336). The rate of revision procedures because of failed fixation or device extrusion was 0.9%. Device failure was experienced in 8 patients in our series, with 75% occurring with the CI24R (CS) device.


CONCLUSIONS
All reimplanted patients with available data had good audiometric outcomes, with the exception of those reimplanted for soft failure who had poor immediate auditory function. Using the manufacturers' recommended surgical technique, including drilling a bony recess with suture fixation, very low surgical revision rates were achieved. Pediatric patients experienced significantly higher complications requiring CIR. All hard failures in this series occurred in the pediatric group and in a single device. Continued follow-up will be needed to determine if additional devices will succumb to this mode of failure.
*Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; †Department of Audiology, Arkansas Children's Hospital; and ‡Department of Biostatistics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A.
Jumin
J
Sunde
Julia B
JB
Webb
Page C
PC
Moore
Michael B
MB
Gluth
John L
JL
Dornhoffer
D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D004868:Equipment Failure; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies