Paediatric Cochlear Implantation Surgery: Surgical Aspects and Preliminary Results on Hearing Preservation, Electrode Placement and Performance with the Cochlear~(TM) Nucleus~R CI422 Implant

摘要

Background: Bilateral cochlear implantation in children with severe hearing impairment has become common practice in many countries. The benefit of bilateral implantation with respect to speech perception in noise, spatial hearing and sound quality has been well documented [Ramsden et al., 2012]. There is, however, some concern that children implanted bilaterally might not be able to benefit from future molecular or genetic treatments due to possible inner ear damage caused by the surgery itself or surgical sequelae that may develop later. On the other hand, if the second ear is not implanted, the prolonged auditory deprivation may result in abnormally developed central auditory pathways leading to the inability for these children to benefit from further advances in future treatments.