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Abstract
Prior to 2009, UK public funding was mainly only available for children to receive unilateral cochlear implants. In 2009, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published guidance for cochlear implantation following their review. According to these guidelines, all suitable children are eligible to have simultaneous bilateral cochlear implants or a sequential bilateral cochlear implant if they had received the first before the guidelines were published. NICE stated that they would review this decision in 2011. In preparation for this review, 13 UK cochlear implant centres formed a consortium, and the decision was made to carry out a multi-centre audit.
The audit involves collecting data from simultaneously and sequentially implanted children at three intervals: before bilateral cochlear implants or before the sequential implant, 1 year after bilateral implants, and 2 years after bilateral implants. The measures include localization, speech recognition in quiet and background noise, speech production, listening, vocabulary, parental perception, quality of life, and surgical data including complications.
The audit has now passed the 1-year point, and data have been received on more than 400 children. Preliminary results will be available a year later.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the participation of clinicians and patients at the following cochlear implant centres: Belfast Regional Cochlear Implant Centre; Birmingham Children's Cochlear Implant Programme; West of England Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme, Bristol; Emmeline Centre, Cambridge; Great Ormond Street Cochlear Implant Programme, London; Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme, London; Manchester Cochlear Implant Programme; North East Cochlear Implant Programme, Middlesbrough; Nottingham Cochlear Implant Programme; The Oxford Cochlear Implant Programme; Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Cochlear Implant Programme, London; South of England Cochlear Implant Centre, Southampton, and St George's Hospital Cochlear Implant Programme, London. The audit is supported by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP).
Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.