Assessment of the Protective Effect of Pneumococcal Vaccination in Preventing Meningitis After Cochlear Implantation

Abstract

Objectives: To examine if a 23-valent pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) reduces the risk of meningitis in healthy rats after cochlear implantation.

Pneumococcal meningitis post cochlear implantation: Development of an animal model in the guinea pig

“…In the present study we used unvaccinated animals. Experimental studies showed, that vaccination can protect animals with cochlear implants from meningitis caused by a vaccine-covered serotype of pneumococci (Wei et al, 2007). However this model allows newly Fig.…”

Can We Prevent Cochlear Implant Recipients from Developing Pneumococcal Meningitis?

“…The efficacy of immunization in reducing the risk of meningitis was tested experimentally by repeating the cochlear implantation experiment on animals that had first been immunized against pneumococcus with a 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) [33]. Although bacteria inoculated by each of the 3 routes caused meningitis in animals with implants that had not received the vaccine, vaccinated animals with implants were protected from meningitis when inoculated via the middle ear ( , by 2-tailed Fisher's exact test) or systemically ( P !…”

Recurrent bacterial meningitis after cochlear implantation in a patient with a newly described labyrinthine malformation

“…The first comprehensive study was published in 2002 [1] after reports about a few cases of death caused by postimplantation purulent meningitis were published. The summary of papers published since 2002 about this phenomenon [2][3][4][5] is that although CI does indeed increase the incidence of otogenic meningitis, this higher risk will, nevertheless, not contraindicate the procedure in light of the existing modern vaccines against meningitis and the advantages of CI--at least not in cases with normal inner ear anatomy.…”

“…Torkos et al phatic and CSF spaces are isolated from the middle ear until they are opened by the preparation of a cochleostomy during CI. It is also known that CI performed in ears with normal anatomy increase the risk of bacterial meningitis--this, however, does not contraindicate CI in light of the benefits of implantation, the existence of modern antibiotics and vaccines against meningogenic bacteria [1][2][3][4][5].…”

“…This comes partly from the fact that CI increases the risk of postimplantation meningitis even in case of normal inner ear anatomy [1][2][3] and partly from the fact that certain labyrinthine malformations are associated with an increased risk of meningitis even without CI [6,18,26,28]. When do we bring a correct decision?…”