ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the learning curve of cochlear implantation and its guiding significance for clinical surgery.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of two otologists in early cochlear implant surgeries, including 98 cases of Dr. A and 54 cases of Dr. B.Statistics of the two doctors incidence of complications and operating time. Operation time as index were drawing a, b two groups of cases of scatter plot, the oscillating sine curve model Y = sin(X)-P/2 and logarithmic curve model Y = b1ln(X)+b0 curve fit were analyzed. Then, extract the early 90 cases of surgery by Dr. A which was divided into a, b, c three groups with 30 cases a group. The operating time and complications were further compared and analyzed(SPSS 16.0).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>From the operation sequence,A and B physicians, early operation cases cost more operating time, and more complications.Learning curve before and after about 30 cases appeared inflection point, showing a rapid decline in period (learning phase) and slow decline period (consolidation phase) in two stages.Group contrast to Dr. A's early 90 consecutive cases, the operating time of Phase b and Phase c decreased significantly than Phase a (P(a-b) < 0.01, P(a-c) < 0.01), while there was no significant difference between group Phase b and Phase c (P(b-c) = 0.68), the complication rate of Phase b and Phase c decreased significantly than Phase a (P(a-b) < 0.01, P(a-c) < 0.01), while there was no significant difference between group Phase b and Phase c (P(b-c) = 0.15).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Our department of cochlear implantation followed the learning curve rule. The minimum number of cases that should accumulate in the learning phase needs about 30 cases.</p>