Late partial recovery from meningitic deafness after cochlear implantation: a case study

A child with well-documented total bilateral deafness as a result of meningitis contracted at the age of 2 years and 8 months demonstrated remarkably delayed recovery of hearing 14 months later. In the meantime cochlear implantation had been performed. Hearing returned partially in the nonimplanted ear and also in the ear implanted with a long multi-electrode intracochlear array, giving unaided thresholds at frequencies from 0.5 to 4 kHz of 60-80 dB and 90-105 dB, respectively. Despite this rare occurrence, it is concluded that a delay until 6 months after meningitis before implantation is appropriate to detect most cases of spontaneous recovery of hearing.