Theory of mind in children with cochlear implants: Comparison with age- and sex-matched children with normal hearing.

Objectives/hypothesis: Theory of mind (ToM) is a crucial ability for maintaining normal social interaction and is directly related to language ability. This study was performed to compare ToM between children with congenital hearing loss who have received cochlear implantation (CI) and those with normal hearing (NH).

Study Design: Case-control study design.

School adjustment of adolescents with sequential bilateral cochlear implants in mainstream school.

Objectives: Little is known about the school adjustment of adolescents with sequential bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) in mainstream educational settings. This study aims to investigate the school adjustment of adolescents with sequential bilateral CIs, in comparison to those of age-matched adolescents with typical hearing (TH), to explore the relationships between individual variables and school adjustment in the bilateral CI group, and to assess the factors leading to strong school adjustment in the bilateral CI group.

Methods: Twenty-five adolescents with sequential bilateral CIs and 30 adolescents with TH, aged 13-19 years, participated in this study.

Trans-tympanic insertion of an angiocatheter with a stopper for treatment of patulous Eustachian tube.

Background: Plugging of the Eustachian tube (ET) is an effective method for treating patulous Eustachian tube (PET). However, no material suitable for plugging is commercially available. A plugging material was made using an angiocatheter and a ventilating tube (VT).

Cortical Auditory Evoked Potential in Adults With Cochlear Implants: A Comparison With Adults With Normal Hearing.

Background And Objectives: To examine the maturational status of the auditory cortex in adults with cochlear implants (CIs) using the latencies of the P1, N1, and P2 components of cortical auditory-evoked potentials (CAEPs).

Subjects And Methods: A total of 25 adults with CIs and 25 age-matched, normal-hearing control subjects participated in this study. Specifically, patients with CIs were divided into three groups depending on their age of deafness onset: Group A comprised patients with prelingual deafness who had received CI during early childhood (n=7), Group B comprised patients with early childhood-onset, progressive deafness who had received CI during childhood (n=6), and Group C comprised patients with adult-onset deafness (n=12).

P1 cortical auditory evoked potential in children with unilateral or bilateral cochlear implants; implication for the timing of second cochlear implantation.

Objective: To examine maturation of the central auditory pathway, using P1 cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP), in children who had received unilateral or bilateral cochlear implantation (CI).

Study Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Tertiary referral hospital.

A Case of Auditory Neuropathy Caused by Pontine Hemorrhage in an Adult.

A pontine hemorrhage can evoke several neurological symptoms because the pons contains various nuclei and nerve fibers. Hearing loss can develop as a result of a pontine hemorrhage because there is an auditory conduction pathway in the cochlear nucleus of the pons. However, very few cases of hearing loss caused by pontine lesions have been reported, and there have been no reports of auditory neuropathy that developed following a pontine hemorrhage.

Criteria for Selecting an Optimal Device for the Contralateral Ear of Children with a Unilateral Cochlear Implant.

Objective: To identify clinical criteria for selecting the aiding device for the contralateral ear of children with a unilateral cochlear implant (CI).

Methods: Sixty-five children, including 36 bilateral CI users and 29 bimodal users, participated in the study. A speech perception test (monosyllabic word test) in noise was administered.

Comparative Study for Efficacy and Safety of Adenoidectomy according to the Surgical Method: A Prospective Multicenter Study.

Background/objective: There have been several operative techniques for adenoidectomy and their efficacy and morbidity are different according to the technique. This prospective multicenter study was aimed to compare the efficacy and morbidity of coblation adenoidectomy (CA) with those of power-assisted adenoidectomy.

Study Design: Prospective multi-institutional study.

Delayed-onset hearing loss in pediatric candidates for cochlear implantation.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance of delayed-onset hearing loss in children. Seventy-three children who underwent cochlear implantation (CI) were included. They were divided into a congenital hearing loss group (n = 50) and a delayed-onset hearing loss group (n = 23).

A new classification of cochleovestibular malformations and implications for predicting speech perception ability after cochlear implantation.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to introduce a new classification of cochleovestibular malformation (CVM) and to investigate how well this classification can predict speech perception ability after cochlear implantation in children with CVM.

Methods: Fifty-nine children with CVM who had used a cochlear implant for more than 3 years were included. CVM was classified into 4 subtypes based on the morphology of the cochlea and the modiolus on temporal bone computed tomography (TBCT): normal cochlea and normal modiolus (type A, n = 16), malformed cochlea and partial modiolus (type B, n = 31), malformed cochlea and no modiolus (type C, n = 6), and no cochlea and no modiolus (type D, n = 6).

Expression profile of fas-fas ligand in spiral ganglion cells during apoptosis.

Objectives: To examine the expression profile of Fas-Fas ligand (FasL) during glutamate (Glu)-induced spiral ganglion cell (SGC) apoptosis.

Methods: Cultured SGCs were treated with 10-mM, 25-mM, and 50-mM concentrations of Glu and incubated for 24 or 48 hours. The expression intensity of FasL, Fas, caspase 3, and morphology of single SGC were evaluated using immunofluorescence staining.

AAC intervention using a VOCA for deaf children with multiple disabilities who received cochlear implantation.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of a new habilitation approach, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention using a voice output communication aid (VOCA), in improving speech perception, speech production, receptive vocabulary skills, and communicative behaviors in children with cochlear implants (CIs) who had multiple disabilities.

Methods: Five children with mental retardation and/or cerebral palsy who had used CIs over two years were included in this study. Five children in the control group were matched to children who had AAC intervention on the basis of the type/severity of their additional disabilities and chronological age.

Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder: predictive value of radiologic studies and electrophysiologic tests on cochlear implant outcomes and its radiologic classification.

Conclusion: The width of the bony cochlear nerve canal (BCNC) and the size of the cochlear nerve are reliable predictors of long-term speech perception abilities for children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) after cochlear implantation (CI). In addition, electrical stapedial reflex (ESR) and electrical compound action potential (ECAP) also have considerable value in predicting postoperative speech perception abilities in these children.

Objectives: To assess whether speech perception abilities after CI in children with ANSD can be predicted from the results of radiologic studies and electrophysiologic tests.

Functional benefits of sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children with long inter-stage interval between two implants.

Objectives: Older children are increasingly deriving binaural benefits from sequential bilateral cochlear implantation, and this procedure should be considered by experienced cochlear implant centers. This study aimed to identify the influence of a long inter-stage interval between two implants in older children. Speech perception and everyday listening performance were investigated and analyzed according to the length of the inter-stage interval.

Cortical auditory evoked potential in aging: effects of stimulus intensity and noise.

Objective: Older adults often have more difficulty understanding speech than younger adults do, particularly in the presence of noise. Such age-related speech perception difficulties may be related to declines in central auditory processing. Additionally, it has been hypothesized that impaired auditory processing might be related to neural dysynchrony.

MAP optimization as a predictor of cochlear implant outcomes in children with narrow internal auditory canal.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to investigate the auditory performance and MAP characteristics of implanted children with narrow internal auditory canal (IAC), and to examine the clinical usefulness of MAP optimization as a predictor of their cochlear implant (CI) outcomes by analyzing their auditory performance and habilitation methods in relation to MAP optimization.

Methods: Eight children with narrow IAC who had used a CI over 3 years were included. We retrospectively examined their auditory performance and MAPs.

Changes in the hearing thresholds of infants who failed the newborn hearing screening test and in infants treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the hearing thresholds during the first year of life in infants who failed the newborn hearing screening (NHS) test and of infants treated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Methods: From March 2007 to November 2010, 193 healthy infants who failed the NHS test and 51 infants who were treated in the NICU were referred for evaluation of hearing acuity. Their hearing was evaluated using impedance audiometry, auditory brainstem response (ABR), and otoacoustic emission before 6 months of age, and follow-up hearing tests were administered before 12 months of age.

Cochlear implantation in children with cochlear aplasia.

Conclusion: Children with cochlear aplasia can achieve favorable speech perception abilities from cochlear implantation (CI) by inserting an electrode array into the vestibule if an audiological response is reliably demonstrated before surgery by behavioral audiometry and objective measures.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the surgical outcome of CI in children with cochlear aplasia.

Methods: The medical records of 454 children who underwent CI at the Dong-A University Hospital between January 1994 and September 2011 were reviewed.

Recovery function of electrically evoked compound action potential in implanted children with auditory neuropathy: preliminary results.

Conclusion: The results of this study show that the temporal processing ability in children with auditory neuropathy (AN) can be restored to some degree by electrical stimulation through a cochlear implant. In addition, the electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) may be a useful index to predict outcomes in implanted children with AN.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate restoration of the temporal processing abilities in implanted children with AN using ECAP recovery function and speech perception.

Performance of children with mental retardation after cochlear implantation: speech perception, speech intelligibility, and language development.

Conclusion: Children with mental retardation (MR) obtain demonstrable benefit from cochlear implantation, and their postoperative performance was tempered by the degree of MR.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of children with MR after implantation, and to explore their progress according to the degree of MR.

Methods: Fifteen implanted children with MR were included.

Gentamicin-induced spiral ganglion cell death: apoptosis mediated by ROS and the JNK signaling pathway.

Conclusion: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway may be involved in secondary apoptosis of spiral ganglion cells (SGCs) induced by intracochlear gentamicin injection.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the role of ROS and the JNK signaling pathway in secondary apoptosis of SGCs induced by intracochlear gentamicin treatment.

Methods: Gentamicin (40 mg/ml) was injected into the cochlea of guinea pigs (n = 18) to destroy the hair cells and induce secondary apoptosis of SGCs.

Cochlear implantation in children.

Cochlear implantation has revolutionized the treatment and prognosis of children with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss who receive limited benefits from hearing aids. Children who receive cochlear implantation at young age, in particular before 2 years of age, can be expected to reach their normal age-equivalent developmental milestones and have higher chance to integrate into the mainstream educational settings. With the positive outcomes after cochlear implantation and the improvements in technology and surgical techniques, candidacy for cochlear implantation in children has been expanding to include hearing-impaired children with significant residual hearing, severe inner ear malformations, multiple handicaps such as mental retardation or visual impairment, and auditory neuropathy.

Bilateral cochlear implants in children.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) use on speech perception in quiet and noise. The eleven children included in our study were prelingually deaf. With the two-stage technique, the two CIs were performed in all children.

Secondary apoptosis of spiral ganglion cells induced by aminoglycoside: Fas-Fas ligand signaling pathway.

Objectives/hypothesis: Hair cell loss results in the secondary loss of spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), over a period of several weeks. The death of the SGNs themselves results from apoptosis. Previous studies have shown that several molecules are involved in the apoptosis of SGNs that occurred secondary to hair cell loss.

Cochlear implantation in children with auditory neuropathy: outcomes and rationale.

Conclusion: Children with auditory neuropathy (AN) obtain considerable benefit from cochlear implantation. Their performance outcomes are as good as those of implanted children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The neural status of children with AN would be comparable to that of children with SNHL and be suitable for cochlear implantation.