Cochlear implantation in 21 patients with common cavity malformation

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Neurosurgery
• Audiology

Background:

• Common cavity (CC) malformation is a complex inner ear anomaly.
• Cochlear implantation (CI) is a treatment option for severe hearing loss in CC malformation.
• Understanding optimal surgical approaches and outcomes is crucial for patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate surgical techniques and cochlear implantation (CI) performance in patients with common cavity (CC) malformation.
• To compare outcomes between different CC malformation subtypes and a control group.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 21 patients with CC malformation, classified into classic CC and CC with incomplete basal turn.
• Comparison with 21 control patients without inner ear malformations.
• Surgical approaches included facial recess and transmastoid single-slit labyrinthotomy.

Main Results:

• Facial recess approach used for CC with incomplete basal turn; transmastoid approach for classic CC.
• Post-implantation follow-up of 36 months revealed poorer audiological thresholds and speech perception scores compared to controls.
• Specific tests (CAP, SIR, IT-MAIS, speech perception) showed significantly lower scores in the CC group.

Conclusions:

• Surgical approach selection is critical: facial recess for incomplete basal turn CC, transmastoid for classic CC.
• While CI provides benefits, patients with CC malformation experience developmental delays in hearing and speech compared to those with normal cochleas.
• Long-term follow-up indicates ongoing challenges in audiological and speech development for CC patients post-CI.