Better speech performance in cochlear implant patients with GJB2-related deafness.

Objective: We applied mutation screening in seven cochlear implant users to identify those persons with GJB2-related deafness to determine whether etiology of deafness was predictive of speech performance after implantation.

Methods: Direct sequence of GJB2 was conducted over seven cochlear implant users with prelingual hearing impairment and their speech, language and cognitive performance was examined.

Results: The three persons with GJB2-related deafness had a mean vocabulary of 1243 words compared to a mean vocabulary of 195 words in the four children with GJB2-unrelated deafness, although the number of patients examined here was limited.