Cochlear Implants Outcomes in Prelingually Deaf Children

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: 1) Assess the audiological outcomes of cochlear implant in children with prelingual deafness. 2) Assess the language, speech and voice outcome of cochlear implant in children with prelingual deafness. METHOD: Prelingual deaf children with more than 5 years of aural rehabilitation with cochlear implant in a Portuguese Implant Centre (Centro Hospitalar de Coimbra), from 1992 to 2009, were submitted to tonal and vocal functional gain, discrimination tests adapted to the age of the individuals, auditory comprehension, speech and language. The monosyllables, numbers and sentences discrimination tests (Portuguese European Language tests) were presented in free field with recorded lists using SFS software through the audiometer at 65 dB SPL. The scales CAP and SIR, Portuguese test that evaluates language development (Compreenso de Estruturas Complexas) speech production (Teste de Articulao Verbal), vocal characteristics (Grelha de Avaliao das Caractersticas Vocais -GACV) and a vowel discrimination test were also used. RESULTS: 142 individuals were evaluated with the monosyllables discrimination test; 78.1% achieved 50% discrimination; 41.5% achieved 70%; regarding phonemic discrimination, mean of 76.25 is achieved, median 81.40 and standard deviation 17.87 . 142 individuals were evaluated with the numbers discrimination test; 96.5% achieved 50% discrimination; 90% achieved 70%, regarding phonemic discrimination mean of 93 is achieved, median 98.85 and standard deviation 13.97. 142 individuals were evaluated with the sentences discrimination test; 76% achieved 50% discrimination; 51.9% achieved 70% discrimination. 133 individuals were evaluated with the vowel discrimination test; the results were an average of 97.42%, and standard deviations of 11.04. 190 individuals were evaluated with the SIR scale; 13.2% were scored on level 3, 16.8% on level 4, and 58.9% on level 5. 127 individuals were evaluated with the CAP scale; 28.3% were scored on level 4, 30.7% on level 5, 17.3% on level 6, and 22% on level 7. 209 individuals were evaluated with the GACV scale; 4.3% were scored on level 3, 34% on level 4 and 58.4% on level 5. Complex sentence comprehension test (Teste de Compreenso de Estruturas Complexas) (nϭ100) the results were an average of 61.67%, and standard deviations of 26.5. Speech production test (Teste de Articulao Verbal) (Nϭ171) the results were an average of 77.6%, and standard deviations of 20.85. CONCLUSION:The results express a good performance in speech intelligibility, with a good articulation level and a good voice quality, according to the results published by other international cochlear implant centers.