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83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2012, Mainz

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Taste sensation after Cochlear Implantation Surgery

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  • corresponding author Farid Alzhrani - Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
  • Thomas Lenarz - Hannover Medical School, Hannover
  • Magnus Teschner - Hannover Medical School, Hannover

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 83. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Mainz, 16.-20.05.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12hnod348

doi: 10.3205/12hnod348, urn:nbn:de:0183-12hnod3485

Published: April 4, 2012

© 2012 Alzhrani et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: Due to the anatomical situation, the Chorda tymani nerve (CTN) is at risk to be damaged during Cochlear implantation, especially during posterior tympanotomy. Thus our aim was to elicit the status of taste sensation after Cochlear implant surgeries.

Method: 26 patients underwent a taste test before, 3 days and 6 weeks after cochlear implantation surgery. The values of sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes were evaluated. Also the patients self ratings of the taste function were obtained.

Results: 19% (5/26) of the patients had postoperative taste dysfunction 3 days after the surgery, either subjectively or objectively or both. One out of these 5 patients had both, subjective and objective taste disturbance, one patient had only subjective problems and 3 patients were subjectively asymptomatic but the postoperative taste test revealed a dysfunction. The recovery rate after 6 weeks was 100%.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that the Cochlear implantation has minimal risk of taste dysfunction but it seems to be mainly a transient problem.