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Abstract
Objective: We investigated effects of aetiology and age at implantation on changes in threshold (T) levels, comfortable (C) levels and dynamic range (DR) for cochlear implants (CIs) in children over the first five years of life. Design: Information was collected at 6 months post-activation of CIs, and at 3 and 5 years of age. Study sample: One hundred and sixty-one children participating in the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study. Results: Children with neural and structural cochlear lesions had higher T-levels and C-levels as compared to those without these conditions. Parameter settings varied from manufacturer’s defaults more often in the former than in the latter group. Investigation of the effect of age at implantation for children without neural and structural cochlear lesions showed that those implanted at ≤12 months of age had higher T-levels and narrower DR at 6 months post-activation, as compared to the later-implanted group. For both early- and later-implanted groups, the C-levels at 6 months post-activation were lower than those at age 3 and 5 years. There were no significant differences in T-levels, C-levels, or DR between age 3 and 5 years. Conclusions: Aetiology and age at implantation had significant effects on T-levels and C-levels.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the children and their families for participation in this study. We are also indebted to the many persons who served as clinicians for the study participants or assisted in other clinical or administrative capacities at Australian Hearing, Hear and Say Centre, Mater Hospital Brisbane, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind, Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre, The Melbourne Cochlear implant Centre and The Shepherd Centre.
We gratefully thank Peter Busby (Cochlear Ltd.) for his advice and assistance with calculation of current levels of stimulation in cochlear implants. We also thank Vicky Zhang (NAL) for her assistance with preparation of the manuscript.
Declaration of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The project was supported by the Commonwealth of Australia through the Office of Hearing Services and through the HEARing CRC, established and supported under the Cooperative Research Centres Program of the Australian Government.
The LOCHI study is partly supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (Award Number R01DC008080). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders or the National Institutes of Health.