Bony cochlear nerve canal in children with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss – a pilot study

Abstract

Introduction:The aim of this study was to evaluate the width of the bony cochlear nerve canal (BCNC) in children with congenital sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and "normal" findings on thin section temporal bone CT.Material and methods: The width of the BCNC was retrospectively evaluated in two groups of patients. The study group included 11 children (22 bone canals) aged 2-12 years, with congenital, bilateral SNHL who underwent cochlear implantation (CI) from July to December 2019 and no abnormalities of the inner ear were detected on their preoperative CT scans. Eleven patients (22 bone canals), aged 3-10 years, in whom no sensorineural hearing loss had been diagnosed were taken as controls and CT scan of the temporal bone was performed for another reason -suspected acute mastoiditis, chronic otitis media, or perforation of the tympanic membrane. Axial sections of their CT scans were used to measure the width of the BCNC.Results: BCNC width values in patients with bilateral, profound sensorineural hearing loss ranged from 1.0 to 2.3 mm and the mean value was 1.5±0.3 mm. In patients with normal hearing, the values for the canal width were higher, with mean value of 2.1±0.3 mm. Conclusion:The results obtained showed that the width of the BCNC in children with bilateral, profound sensorineural hearing impairment was significantly smaller than in the control group with normal hearing for p <0.05 (t-test=6.62912, p=0.000000).