Successful compensation of facial nerve stimulation after cochlear implantation

Cochlear implantation is a therapy with few complications - even if the few complications can be very debilitating. In particularly facial nerve stimulation, which can occur postoperatively (without intraoperative surgical injury), can become an insurmountable obstacle to the effective use of the cohlear implant. Initial clinical experience shows that a pseudomonophasic stimulation minimizes the risk of these facial nerve stimulations. These retrospective cases report on 2 patients who after reimplantation and use of the pseudomonophasic stimulation did not experience facial nerve stimulation.

Patient 1: After reimplantation due to technical defect and 6 months of uncomplicated use with good speech understanding, the patient reports dizzines and facial nerve stimulation. The triggering electrodes could be identified, were technically intact and all electrophysiological compensation options were unsuccessful. The reimplantation led to a complete resolution of the symptoms with improved speech understanding.

Patient 2: Facial nerve stimulation occurs after bilateral implantation on both sides with the same manufacturer. The electrodes can be identified. All technical and medical therapeutic approaches did not lead to an improvement, so that a bilateral reimplantation was performed. The facial nerve stimulation no longer occurred on both sides. The pseudomonophasic stimulation mode seems to be a possibility in affected patients to avoid the facial stimulation and maintain a good speech understanding with cohlear implant. The anatomical - functional evaluation could help to identify potentially affected patients preoperatively and advise them accordingly.

Poster-PDF A-1068.pdf

Conflict of interest

Der Erstautor gibt keinen Interessenskonflikt an.

Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021