Children with radiographic cochlear malformations benefit from cochlear implantation with multichannel devices. They ultimately perform as well as their matched counterparts with normal cochleae, although they may improve more slowly over time.

These results confirm previous findings indicating continued improvement of speech recognition with time in implanted children. Furthermore, the results support the concept of the advantage of a younger age at implantation.

Prelingually deafened children with postmeningitic hearing loss and ossified cochleae receive significant benefit from cochlear implants. Their performance is frequently poorer, however, than children with nonossified cochleae.

The findings of this study indicate that both groups derive significant benefit from their cochlear implants. Although the mean preoperative audiograms for the implanted ears did not differ significantly for the two groups of subjects, members of the Borderline group exhibited significantly better speech recognition skills than the Traditional group during the first year after implantation. These findings suggest that the increased auditory experience of the Borderline subjects positively influenced their performance with a cochlear implant. The authors advocate that the selection criteria used to determine pediatric cochlear implant candidacy be broadened to include consideration of children who demonstrate minimal open-set speech recognition skills.