Wei Benjamin P C, Robins-Browne Roy M, Shepherd Robert K, Clark Graeme M, O'Leary Stephen J
The Bionic Ear Institute, Melbourne East, Victoria, Australia.
Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Jan 1;46(1):e1-7. doi: 10.1086/524083.
The restoration of hearing to persons with severely or profoundly impaired hearing by means of a cochlear implant is one of the great achievements of bionics applied to medicine. However, pneumococcal meningitis in implant recipients has received high profile public attention as a result of the US Food and Drug Administration's public health notification and recent media attention. Worldwide, 118 of the 60,000 people who received cochlear implants over the past 20 years have acquired meningitis, causing deep concern in the international medical community. This review provides answers to pediatricians, internists, and infectious diseases doctors who have patients with cochlear implants and who have questions about the safety of the cochlear implant from both the clinical and scientific research perspectives. Both clinical and laboratory research support the notion that pneumococcal meningitis is more likely in patients who receive cochlear implantation, and that the surgical insertion technique and the cochlear implant design should be nontraumatic, and that all cochlear implant recipients should be offered vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae.
通过人工耳蜗使重度或极重度听力受损者恢复听力，是仿生学应用于医学的重大成就之一。然而，由于美国食品药品监督管理局发布的公共卫生通知以及近期媒体的关注，人工耳蜗植入受者发生的肺炎球菌性脑膜炎受到了公众的高度关注。在全球范围内，过去20年中接受人工耳蜗植入的6万人中有118人患上了脑膜炎，这引起了国际医学界的深切关注。本综述为那些有接受人工耳蜗植入患者且对人工耳蜗安全性存在疑问的儿科医生、内科医生和传染病医生，从临床和科研角度提供了答案。临床和实验室研究均支持以下观点：接受人工耳蜗植入的患者更易发生肺炎球菌性脑膜炎，手术植入技术和人工耳蜗设计应避免造成创伤，并且所有人工耳蜗植入受者都应接种肺炎链球菌疫苗。
