Cochlear Implantation in Children

Abstract

Cochlear implantation is now a mainstream option for the management of children with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Worldwide, approximately 65,000 people have cochlear implants, of whom approximately 25,000 are children. Cochlear implants are suitable for children from the 1st year of life onwards. Current research indicates that among congenitally deafened children, those who are implanted at a very young age seem to have the best outcomes from cochlear implantation. With the implementation of universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) in many developed countries and with the ability to obtain objective, frequency-specific and earspecific hearing thresholds using auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and auditory steady state responses (ASSR) at, or shortly following birth, it is no longer necessary to delay intervention until the child is able to perform conventional behavioural tests. Yoshinaga-Itano et al. (1998) published seminal research that demonstrated that children who were identified with hearing loss early, and provided with amplification or implantation soon afterwards, were able to achieve much better outcomes in speech and language development than children whose hearing loss was identified later or who had delayed intervention.