Speech test results after reimplantation with prelingual deafness: a case study

Introduction To achieve the best results, the earliest possible care with a cochlear implant (CI) is particulary important for patients with prelingual deafness. However, early CI care also increases the probability of one or more reimplantations in the patient’s life. What effects does one or more reimplantations have on patients with prelingual deafness and can they benefit from technical advances?

Methods The examined patient is prelingual deaf on both sides and was unilaterally provided with a CI at the age of 4. Due technical defects, the first reimplantation took place at the age of 18 years and the second of 21 years. There was a change to new implant and speech processor types. The hearing performance before and after the reimplantations is shown with the Freiburg numbers and monosyllable test.

Results After the first reimplantation, the previous result in the numbers test (35%) is almost reached immediately (30%) and increases to 85% until the second reimplantation. Also after the second reimplantation, the previous result in the numbers test (85%) is almost reached again (80%). In the monosyllable test, the result after the first reimplantation increases from 0% to 10% and after the second reimplantation to 30%.

Conclusion The case study shows that previous results can be achieved or improved after one or more reimplantations. Also patients with prelingual deafness can benefit from technical progress.

It can be assumed, that an even earlier CI care than the 4^th year of life, as well as a bilateral CI care, would have led to even more measurable results (e.g. in sentence comprehension).

Poster-PDF A-1703.PDF

Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020