Auditory Performance in Late Implanted Congenitally Hearing Impaired Children: A Reality Check.

The present study aimed at determining auditory performance in children with congenital hearing impairment who underwent cochlear implant surgery unilaterally at or after age of 5 years. Study also aimed at studying association of factors such as chronological age (CA), implant age (IA), age at implantation (AAI), hearing age (HA), parental support, compliance to therapy, mode of therapy and parental satisfaction with auditory performance. It is a retrospective study. Files of 41 participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were reviewed for scores of Revised categories of auditory perception (CAP), Listening skills scale (LSS) and Speech intelligibility rating (SIR) along with other factors. Only 20 participants with complete data were included in the study. Researcher rated parental support and compliance to therapy while parental satisfaction was noted prospectively using a single yes-no type question. Participants showed improvement on CAP, LSS, SIR however they did not reach normal or near normal scores. CAP and LSS did not correlate with CA nor AAI or with IA. However CAP and LSS showed significant correlation with HA. SIR showed significant correlation with CA, AAI, IA and HA. Good auditory performance was associated with parental support and compliance to therapy but not with mode of therapy offered. 17 out of 20 parents were satisfied with outcomes of cochlear implant. Late implanted children showed improved auditory performance with implantation when they had previous hearing aid experience and parent support and compliance to therapy though they did not reach normal levels.