The effects of rehabilitation on the pre-lingual deaf children with inner malformation after cochlear implantation / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of rehabilitation after cochlear implantation in children with malformed inner ear and compare them with a group of congenitally deaf children implantees with a normal inner ear.METHODS 21 children with inner ear malformation were retrospectively studied. The postoperative outcomes of these 21 cases were compared with that of 21 cases with normal inner ear structure. The assessment of all the children included the hearing levels, language ability , categories of auditory performance (CAP) and speech intelligibility rating (SIR) respectively before cochlear implantation, 6 months and 1 year after surgery. The data was analyzed using SPSS 17.0. RESULTS The results of rehabilitation in 9 children with Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome and 6 cases with Mondini abnormality had no significant difference comparing with the control cases. The outcomes of 1case with severe Mondini abnormality and 5 cases with common cavity indicated significant worse than the control cases. CONCLUSION The effect of rehabilitation had no difference between the children with large vestibular aqueduct syndrome and the cases with normal inner structure after cochlear implantation, but was poorer in children with severe Mondini abnormality and common cavity. It was necessary to evaluate the degree of malformation of inner ear structure before cochlear implantation. The hearing abilities have improved quickly 6 months after cochlear implantation. The language abilities will need at least one year to get improved while the SIR need even more time. The development of language functions requires individualized rehabilitation guidance and integrated education.