Study of surgical complications and technical failures (correction of technical defects) of cochlear implants

INTRODUCTION: Cochlear implants (CI) have proved their clinical efficacy and have overcome a routine treatment for profound sensorineural impairment. In the present paper we review our CI program concerning surgical complications and equipment failures. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One-hundred and thirty-five patients (69 younger and 66 older than 14 years of age) are subjects of the study. They suffered from pre-lingual (86 cases) or post-lingual (49 cases) profound bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment, and all of them received a Mini Nucleus 22 CI in our CI program. We analyze minor and major surgical complications and also CI and external equipment failures. RESULTS: In 6.1% of the patients (8 cases) a surgical complication occurred, 3 of them flap-related complications. In 2 of these cases (1.54%) complications were major. Three patients (2.17%) developed a complete CI failure, while in 8 cases malfunction of one or more electrodes was detected. Cumulative survival of CI was 87 months, without significant differences related to age or gender. Cumulative survival of the processors was 78.6 months, without significant differences related to the type of processor (MSP or Spectra) or gender but related to the age. The microphone failed in 42.2% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: The CI is a low-morbidity treatment with adequate characteristics of durability and reliability. Nevertheless, some of the external components remain quite vulnerable.