Cochlear implants improve the quality of sound perceived by the deaf as they transmit the sound directly to the auditory nerve. However, because of danger of infection or damage to the implant and because of the prohibitive cost of the surgery, the implant is usually placed only in one ear. However, a new research carried out at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Netherlands, has found that the quality of life of children undergoing a sequential bilateral cochlear implant improves considerably.
The study, which has been published in the latest issue of Archives of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, involved 30 children with prelingual deafness, who underwent a second cochlear implant operation. The study also examined nine children with unilateral cochlear implants. The mean age of the children receiving second cochlear implant was 5 years. The quality of life of the children was compared before operation, at the end of the first year, and at the end of second year after operation. The quality of life of children with unilateral cochlear implant was compared with the children with sequential cochlear implants after the end of one and two years. The measurement of the quality of life was done on the basis of six parameters.
The researchers noticed a considerable improvement in the quality of life of children after sequential bilateral cochlear implant. On a scale of 0 to 1, the children scored around 0.48 before the second implant, 0.60 at the end of one year and 0.62 at the end of the second year after the second implant. The children noticed a marked improvement in the quality of sound perceived, especially in a noisy environment like that in a classroom, when the teacher is facing the blackboard and the children cannot lip- read. The results of the research will embolden the surgeons who were wary of giving cochlear implants to young children in both the ears.
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