מאתר medicontext.co.il
By Joene Hendry
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) – Cochlear implants are effective and safe for both short- and long-term use in children of all ages, according to data scheduled for presentation on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Foundation in Denver.
"Cochlear implants really do work well in profoundly deaf and congenitally deaf children and the benefit is maintained over time," presenter Dr. Noel L. Cohen told Reuters Health by telephone last week. "No deleterious effects have occurred over time," he said.
Dr. Cohen and colleagues at New York University Medical Center conducted age-appropriate pre- and post-implant testing of 81 children, ages 1.8 to 15 years at the time of cochlear implantation, who were followed for at least 5 years. The researchers analyzed speech perception using the Early Speech Perception test and the Northwestern University Children's Perception Test of Speech and tested sentence recognition with the Common Phrases and Bamford-Kowal-Bench tests.
The mean pre-implant speech perception score was 0.34%, with "about 79 of 81 children unable to comprehend or respond to the test," Dr. Cohen said. After implantation, he and his team determined that the mean score was 8.9% at 1 year, 33.2% at 3 years, and 65.4% at 5 to 13 years.
The mean pre-implant sentence recognition score was just 0.6%. On the same tests given at 1 year post-implant, the mean score was 17.7%, Dr. Cohen told Reuters Health. The mean score was 51.1% at 3 years and 81.3% at 5 to 13 years post-implant.
Dr. Cohen noted that "children who use speech as their primary communication mode improve significantly more with cochlear implants than those who sign or sign and speak." He added that children attending mainstreamed schools show more improvement than those who attend schools exclusively using gesture or sign language.
The researchers found no negative impact from cochlear implants. They also observed no decreased function over time unless the device failed, "and patients with device failure continue to do well with re-implantation," Dr. Cohen said.
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