engleski

COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION IN CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN 24 MONTHS

Objectives With the universal newborn hearing screening program, which cover whole Croatia since 2002., children with severe to profound hearing loss are being diagnosed as infants. This affords the opportunity to provide these children access to cochlear implantation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of cochlear implantation in children who are younger than 24 months. Material and Methods A consecutive sample of 44 children, which are 12, 7% of all CI in our clinic, were operated younger than 24 months. 20 were girls, 24 boys, mean age 15, 2 mo, range 8-22 mo. The length of device usage ranged from 6 months to 5 years. The causes of deafness were congenital (92%), meningitis (6%) and trauma (2%). The main outcomes measured were perioperative and postoperative surgical/medical aspects, the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale and ageappropriate phoneme, and word and sentence recognition tests, when appropriate. Results There were no surgical complications in that population. All children had full insertions of the electrode array without surgical complications and are developing age-appropriate auditory perception and oral language skills. Conclusions It is feasible to put a cochlear implantation in children younger than 24 months with profound hearing loss.

cochlear implant; children

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