Complications in cochlear implant surgery

For the last 6 years, cochlear implantation has become a standard practice in our department. The number of patients rose from 5 to 21/ year. Using multiple types of cochlear implants and indicating the surgery also to malformed inner ears led to the encounter of some complications.

to present the surgical complications from our department.

all the patients admitted and operated in our clinic have been reviewed.

9 complications (8,86%) have occurred: the impossibility of establishing a reliable cochleostomy (due to ossification), air in the cochlea through lack of sealing of the cochleostomy (exteriorization of the electrode array), cochlear implant postoperative migration from its bed, weak hearing discrimination due to "double electrodes" in the scala tympani, gusher.

cochlear implanting needs to respect the technical steps of the surgery and the best technical/ tactical solution has to be found to whatever complications arise in complex or malformed cases!