Surgical and functional outcomes of cochlear implantation in post-lingual and cross-over patients: First 5-year review of the National Ministry of Health Malaysia cochlear implant programme

ABSTRACT

@#Introduction: There has been a paradigm shift in the management of acquired sensory neural deafness in the past 30years. This is due to the emergence of implantable hearing devices such as the cochlear implant. The objective of this study is to identify surgical and functional outcomes of post-lingual and cross-over patients implanted with a cochlear implant under the National Ministry of Heath Cochlear Implant (CI) Program between 2009-2013. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all postlingual and cross-over recipients of cochlear implants under the National Ministry of Heath CI Programme from 2009 to 2013. The outcomes measured were surgical complications and functional outcome. Surgical complications were divided into major and minor complications. Functional outcomes were measured using Categorical Auditory Performances (CAP) scale. Results: A total of 41 post-lingual and 15 cross-over patients were implanted between 2009 and 2013. The age of implantees ranged from 3.6 years to 63.2 years old. There were two major complications (3.6%), one is a case of electrode migration at three months post implantation, and six months post second implantation. Another was a case of device failure at about one-year post implantation. Both patients were reimplanted in the same ear. There was no minor complication. The CAP score for both groups (overall) showed significant improvement with 96.4% achieved CAP score of five and above at 24 months after implantation (p<0.001). The CAP score showed marked improvement at the first 6 months post implantation and continued to improve with time in both groups. Conclusion: The Malaysian National Ministry of Health Cochlear implant (CI) Program between 2009-2013 has been a successful programme with good surgical and functional outcomes among the post lingual and cross-over patients.