Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Hear Res. 2019 Feb;372:80-87. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2017.10.010. Epub 2017 Oct 31.
An increasing number of children receive bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) sequentially. Outcomes of bilateral implantation show high variability. This retrospective analysis investigates the optimal inter-implant interval. For this purpose, speech comprehension results of 250 children who underwent sequential bilateral cochlear implantation were evaluated. All individuals underwent periodic speech perception testing in quiet and noise. The most recent unilateral data for each side were statistically analyzed. Speech test outcomes were evaluated with reference to age at first implantation and interval between implantations. A statistically significant difference for speech test performance was obtained between the first-implanted ear and the second-implanted ear for all children (expressed as a mean). These outcomes were dependent on the inter-implant interval. There was a significant correlation (r = - 0.497; p = 0.000) between speech test results and the inter-implant interval. Nevertheless, one subgroup of 27 children had the same or better results for the second side as compared with the first. In conclusion, the evaluation of the inter-implant interval and age groups at first implantation showed a preferred interval of up to four years in children under the age of 4 at first implantation. The older the children were at first implantation, the shorter the inter-implant interval had to be. It is as a direct consequence of this interval that children for whom it was longer were also older.
越来越多的儿童接受双侧人工耳蜗植入（CI）。双侧植入的结果显示出高度的可变性。本回顾性分析研究了最佳的植入间隔。为此，评估了 250 名接受序贯双侧人工耳蜗植入的儿童的言语理解结果。所有个体均接受定期在安静和噪声环境下的言语感知测试。对每侧最近的单侧数据进行了统计学分析。言语测试结果参考首次植入年龄和植入间隔进行评估。所有儿童的首次植入耳和第二植入耳的言语测试表现均存在统计学显著差异（以平均值表示）。这些结果取决于植入间隔。言语测试结果与植入间隔之间存在显著相关性（r=-0.497；p=0.000）。然而，有 27 名儿童的第二侧的结果与第一侧相同或更好。总之，对植入间隔和首次植入年龄组的评估显示，对于首次植入时年龄在 4 岁以下的儿童，最佳间隔为 4 年以内。首次植入时儿童年龄越大，植入间隔就越短。这是由于间隔时间较长，儿童的年龄也较大。
