Nassif Nader, Balzanelli Cristiano, Redaelli de Zinis Luca Oscar
Department of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, ASST Spedali Civili, 25123 Brescia, Italy.
Vertigo Center-San Bernardino Policlinic of Salò, 25087 Brescia, Italy.
Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2021 Jan 9;11(1):12-19. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe11010002.
In children with profound deafness, bilateral cochlear implant (CI) is an effective, established procedure. However, its safety on vestibular function has recently been debated. The goal of this study is to evaluate the long-term lateral semicircular canal high-frequency vestibulo-oculomotor reflex (LSC HF VOR) in children with CI by video head impulse testing (vHIT). This is a cross-sectional study assessing a cohort of children who received either a unilateral (12) or a bilateral (12) cochlear implant (CI), compared with a control group of 12 normal-hearing children. No significant LSC HF VOR gain difference was found between CI users and controls. In the unilaterally implanted group, the LSC HF VOR gain measured in the "CI-ON" condition was significantly higher than in the "CI-OFF" condition, both in the implanted and in the non-implanted ear. In the bilaterally implanted group, the difference between the two conditions was not significant. Our results do not show any impairment of LSC HF VOR function in children with CI compared to normal-hearing children in the long-term period. This suggests that both unilateral and simultaneous/sequential bilateral CI are procedures that do not impair HF LSC long-term function when analyzed by vHIT.
对于极重度耳聋儿童，双侧人工耳蜗植入（CI）是一种行之有效的既定手术。然而，其对前庭功能的安全性最近受到了争议。本研究的目的是通过视频头脉冲测试（vHIT）评估人工耳蜗植入儿童的长期外侧半规管高频前庭眼动反射（LSC HF VOR）。这是一项横断面研究，评估了一组接受单侧（12例）或双侧（12例）人工耳蜗植入（CI）的儿童，并与12名听力正常儿童的对照组进行比较。人工耳蜗植入使用者与对照组之间未发现LSC HF VOR增益存在显著差异。在单侧植入组中，无论是植入耳还是未植入耳，在“CI开启”状态下测量的LSC HF VOR增益均显著高于“CI关闭”状态。在双侧植入组中，两种状态之间的差异不显著。我们的结果表明，与听力正常儿童相比，长期来看人工耳蜗植入儿童的LSC HF VOR功能未出现任何损害。这表明，通过vHIT分析时，单侧以及同时/序贯双侧人工耳蜗植入手术均不会损害HF LSC的长期功能。
