The Effect of National Pneumococcal Vaccination Program on Incidence of Postmeningitis Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Current Treatment Modalities

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the national pneumococcal vaccination program on postmeningitis sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

Overall, 2751 patients (2615 cochlear implantation and 136 auditory brainstem implantation) who underwent cochlear implantation (CI) and auditory brainstem implantation (ABI) at a tertiary referral hospital otolaryngology clinic were retrospectively analyzed. One hundred sixteen patients with a history of meningitis were included in the study. Patients were evaluated for their age at the time of surgery, gender, computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, implant type, side, and incidence before and after the vaccination program.

When patients with cochlear implants or ABI were examined, the incidence of meningitis-induced hearing loss was 6.2% in the pre-vaccination period and 0.6% in the post-vaccination period. There is a significant difference between them when compared by chi-square test (p<0.001).

The most important finding of the present study is the dramatic decrease in the number of CI and ABI surgeries performed in patients with SNHL due to meningitis. This shows the effectivity of pneumococcal vaccination in this special group of patients. If total ossification is detected on CT of patients with postmeningitis, ABI should be preferred to CI.