gms | German Medical Science

GMS Current Posters in Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery

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

ISSN 1865-1038

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The role of soft surgery concept for residual hearing preservation during cochlear implantation.

Poster Otologie

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  • corresponding author Katya Assenova - ENT Clinic, Military Medical Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Ventsislav Tsvetkov - Military Medical Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Stefan Stoyanov - Ministry of Interior, Medical Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria

GMS Curr Posters Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2015;11:Doc369

doi: 10.3205/cpo001334, urn:nbn:de:0183-cpo0013344

Published: April 16, 2015

© 2015 Assenova et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

Abstract

Objective: This study is designed to test the possibility for preservation of residual hearing in pediatric patients by means of “soft surgery” and standard electrode arrays with full length insertions.

Material and methods: 14 profoundly hearing impaired children with some residual hearing who underwent cochlear implantation using a modified “soft surgery” protocol at the ENT clinic of MMA – Sofia. For our study we defined functional residual hearing as at least one threshold better than or equal to 75dB HL at 250, 500, or 1000Hz. Pre-implant and post-implant pure tone thresholds and pure tone average (PTA) were calculated from unaided audiograms for 250, 500, and 1000Hz. Hearing preservation was determined as average loss of less than 20dB for the 3 tested frequencies.

Results: Complete hearing preservation was achieved in 6/14 patients (42.8%), while 8/14 (57.2%) had worse preservation or no response at the limits of the audiometer. The pre- to post-operative low frequency PTA had a mean reduction of 16.5dB.

Conclusion: Preservation of residual hearing in pediatric cochlear implant patients using standard length electrode arrays with full insertions is possible when using the“Soft surgery” technique proposed by Lehnhardt. The residual hearing is very important for the use of electroacoustic stimulation.

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