Cochlear implantation in infants less than 12 months of age.

Objective: Infants are diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss at an earlier age due to the advent of universal newborn hearing screening. This offers the opportunity to provide intervention in the form of cochlear implantation at an earlier age than was previously possible. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the risk of cochlear implant surgery in children less than 12 months of age.

Design: Retrospective review of children who underwent cochlear implantation before 12 months of age.

Setting: Patients were identified from a database of pediatric cochlear implant patients at a tertiary care center. All patients were diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss by otoacoustic emission and auditory brainstem response. Follow-up ranged from 2 months to 5 years.

Results: Fourteen of 15 patients had full insertions of the electrode hardware. Less than full insertion and post-operative CSF otorrhea occurred in one patient with severe cochlear abnormalities. There were no other perioperative surgical complications. The average speech detection threshold was 27.6 dB (20-45 dB) at approximately 1-3 months post-stimulation and 25 dB (15-30 dB) at approximately 5-7 months.

Conclusion: In our experience, we feel cochlear implantation is safe for infants as young as 6 months of age. The current standard at our institution is to implant by 7 months of age for prelingual deafness as opposed to waiting additional time until 12 months of age before the brain is presented with speech.