“Upgrade“ Reimplantation – a specific challenge

Introduction Cochlear Implants as well as conventional hearing aids are part of the well experienced therapy strategy in children. Surgical complications in CI are rare. But reimplantation and re-Fitting in young adolescents, implanted in childhood, are a specific pathophysiological challenge. In this retrospective study we are reporting about 28 patient, implanted in childhood and asking for reimplantation because of expecting better speech understanding.

Results The investigation reveals that the electrode position differs in terms of insertion depth. Also speech understanding before reimplantation was reached between 15% and 100 % monosyllables. Most reimplantation was performed with a longer electrode.Most of the patients reached a better speech understanding than with the previous implant – not all profit from the new soundquality of the implantdevice and the speechprocessor.

Conclusion  The elective reimplantation from young adults, implanted during neural plasticity in childhood is concerning counselling , expectation , electrode choice and re-fitting challenging.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2023