Hearing and language development in children with brainstem implants: a systematic review

To present scientific evidence, based on a systematic review of the literature, on the benefit of brainstem implants in auditory rehabilitation and language development in children.

A systematic search was used to identify studies that contain information about the benefit of brainstem implants in the auditory rehabilitation and language development of children. The review was conducted based on a structured literature search, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) checklist. The search was carried out in the PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases, using the combination "Auditory brainstem implants" AND "Pediatric", without restriction of language, period, and location. The quality assessment of the articles was performed using the Study Quality Assessment Tools.

Regarding hearing, children with brainstem implants showed sound detection, access to most speech sounds, basic auditory perception skills, recognition of ambient sounds, recognition of some frequently used words and phrases, in addition to some closed-set word discrimination capability. Expressive and comprehensive language were identified in children using auditory brainstem implants, increasing significantly in the short and long terms in most cases; however, in some of the children, such skills remained stable.

The auditory brainstem implant can be considered an effective alternative for children with cochlear malformation and/or auditory nerve deficiency and for those who cannot benefit from cochlear implant surgery.