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Updated: May 27, 2025
Author Spotlight: Optimizing EAS with Long Electrodes for Enhanced Cochlear Coverage and Hearing Preservation
Published on: October 11, 2024
Elective Versus Corrective Cochlear Implant Revision Surgery of Legacy Internal Devices
Samuel P O'Rourke, Margaret T Dillon1, Samantha P Scharf2
1Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Objective:
To assess the time course of speech recognition restoration for recipients of legacy devices who underwent cochlear implant revision (CIR) surgery in the presence or absence of device failure.
Study Design:
Retrospective review.
Setting:
Tertiary academic referral center.
Patients:
Forty-four adult recipients of a first- or second-generation internal device who underwent CIR surgery.
Interventions:
Cases were categorized by whether the CIR surgery was elective (n = 18) or corrective due to a hard (n = 7) or soft (n = 19) failure.
Main Outcome Measures:
Aided consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) word recognition scores were queried for the following visits: best performance pre-CIR and 3, 6, and 12 months post-CIR. A linear mixed effects model evaluated the main effects of visit, CIR category, and age at CIR surgery, and the interaction of interval and revision category on CNC scores.
Results:
Limited surgical challenges were reported (n = 4), which included one case of incomplete insertion of the new device. Post-CIR CNC scores were similar to the best pre-CIR scores by 6 months post-CIR ( p = 0.055). There was a significant effect of age ( p = 0.006), with better performance observed for younger adults. The time course of speech recognition restoration post-CIR did not differ significantly for cases of corrective CIR due to hard or soft failures or elective CIR ( F(2,40) = 0.08, p = 0.923).
Conclusions:
Legacy CI users who undergo corrective or elective CIR may experience a similar time course in restoration of speech recognition post-CIR. Legacy device recipients considering elective CIR to access technology upgrades should be counseled on the associated potential risks and benefits.
