United Kingdom national paediatric bilateral project: Results of professional rating scales and parent questionnaires.

Objectives: This fourteen-centre project used professional rating scales and parent questionnaires to assess longitudinal outcomes in a large non-selected population of children receiving simultaneous and sequential bilateral cochlear implants.

Methods: This was an observational non-randomized service evaluation. Data were collected at four time points: before bilateral cochlear implants or before the sequential implant, one year, two years, and three years after.

United Kingdom national paediatric bilateral project: Demographics and results of localization and speech perception testing.

Objectives: To assess longitudinal outcomes in a large and varied population of children receiving bilateral cochlear implants both simultaneously and sequentially.

Methods: This observational non-randomized service evaluation collected localization and speech recognition in noise data from simultaneously and sequentially implanted children at four time points: before bilateral cochlear implants or before the sequential implant, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years after bilateral implants. No inclusion criteria were applied, so children with additional difficulties, cochleovestibular anomalies, varying educational placements, 23 different home languages, a full range of outcomes and varying device use were included.

Criteria versus guidelines: Are we doing the best for our paediatric patients?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for the provision of cochlear implants (NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance 166. Cochlear implants for children and adults with severe to profound deafness. 2009.