success/failure stats?

Can someone point me to a reliable source of unbiased information on the success/failure rates of CI? I've seen all the miracle success stories, and the implant failure stories. But are there any straight-up stats available on success/failure rates?

What frequencies do CIs cover? Do they go beyond 4000 hz?

I've read about "not all of the electrodes firing" for unexplained reasons. How often does that happen?

My son (almost 6) has been doing great with HAs, but he does rely a lot on lipreading. He has a sloping loss (possible cochlear dead zone) and wears Naidas with sound recover so he can access hi frequency sounds, although he hears them at a lower frequency. At any rate, he has no issues with his auditory nerve or language development or anything. His oral/aural language is in the 99th percentile, about 2 years ahead of his natural age (2 1/2 ahead of his corrected age). But he does miss cues, and there is also definitely a lot of "bluffing" going on. He knows ASL, went to ASL preschool for 2 1/2 years, and 2 months over the summer. But he resists using it.

For people who've gone from HA to CI, how weird was it to get used to? Will my son (who destroyed a set of FM receivers because they sounded "creaky") go nutso before he gets used to it? Like in that episode of Criminal Minds?? (kidding)

Anyway, any and all advice appreciated. I hate the idea of any kind of surgery at all, just because I'm massively squeamish. But I don't want him to resent me for not having it done. Or for having it done. We'll be talking a lot with him about whether he wants it or not, after we know if he even qualifies at all.

Hi jbeer! Are you looking for data/stats on medical success rates (implant surgery, revision surgery), or technology/device longevity, post-CI audiograms showing access to speech sounds, or something qualitative like satisfaction rates, %recipients who found improvement in word comprehension, anecdotal testimony from recipients themselves, literacy rates, and so on? I can point you to some sources if you can identify what "success" means to you. Everybody looks at it differently.

You may not have to worry about surgery if your son seems to be doing well with HAs.

Following are some basic criteria for initial screening for a CI, although each clinic / audi would take individual situations into consideration. But these apply to people who don't receive benefit from hearing aids, so if your child is benefitting from HAs, and has excellent word comp, candidacy is unlikely:

Adults (18 years of age and older)
• Moderate to Profound SNHL, bilaterally
• 50% or less - sentence recognition - in the ear to be implanted
• 60% or less - sentence recognition - in the opposite ear or binaurally
• Pre-linguistic or post-linguistic onset of moderate-to-profound SNHL
• No medical contraindications
• A desire to hear

Pediatrics (25 months to 17 years 11 months)
• Severe to Profound SNHL, bilaterally
• MLNT scores of 30% or less in best-aided condition (children 25 months to 4 yrs. 11 months)
• LNT scores of 30% or less in best-aided condition (children 5 yrs. to 17 yrs. 11 months)
• Lack of progress in the development of auditory skills
• No medical contraindications
• High motivation and appropriate expectations (both child when appropriate and family)

12 Months to 24 Months
• Profound SNHL, bilaterally
• Limited benefit from appropriate binaural hearing aids
• Lack of progress in the development of auditory skills
• No medical contraindications
• High motivation and appropriate expectations from family

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Our 6YO quickly grew to dislike her HAs, the volume was cranked up to the point where she would cry in aggravation or pain and toss them. On the other hand, she insists on her CIs, even refusing to take them off at night (I have to slip them off after she falls asleep). So there doesn't always seem to be a correlation between how a child reacts to HAs and CIs. But then, unlike your child, doctors think ours was profoundly deaf from birth and had not had access to viable sound until she got the first of her CIs at almost 2YO, so she has no comparison between what she once had and what she now has.

GrendelQ said:

Hi jbeer! Are you looking for data/stats on medical success rates (implant surgery, revision surgery), or technology/device longevity, post-CI audiograms showing access to speech sounds, or something qualitative like satisfaction rates, %recipients who found improvement in word comprehension, anecdotal testimony from recipients themselves, literacy rates, and so on? I can point you to some sources if you can identify what "success" means to you. Everybody looks at it differently.

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I'm looking for:
data/stats on medical success rates (implant surgery, revision surgery)
post-CI audiograms showing access to speech sounds

He is already a great reader, so I'm not concerned about literacy. And I feel overwhelmed by anecdotes! Just want facts at this point.

GrendelQ said:

You may not have to worry about surgery if your son seems to be doing well with HAs.

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He's doing extremely well in some ways, but struggling in others.

GrendelQ said:

Following are some basic criteria for initial screening for a CI, although each clinic / audi would take individual situations into consideration. But these apply to people who don't receive benefit from hearing aids, so if your child is benefitting from HAs, and has excellent word comp, candidacy is unlikely

Click to expand...

My son would be qualifying (if he qualifies) for a particular study, so I don't know if these criteria are applicable to this particular case.

I've been looking around a bit, and I guess I haven't been looking in the right places, because I haven't seen anything on what frequencies the CIs reach, typically? Because Harry has a high frequency loss, that's what I'm really interested in learning about.

I contacted my hospital to get both my surgeon's and the hospital's success / failure rates for CI surgeries. They should be able to provide that to you.
If you want ww #s, the CI companies themselves are required to provide their product-specific reliability rates ( Nucleus Reliability | Cochlear, http://www.advancedbionics.com/cont...ate/AB_Technology_Reliability_Report_2012.pdf, Hearing Implant Reliability Reporting | MED-EL.
You can also access the MAUDE database, although I've done so and have found that the #s require so much cleaning up -- you often get 4-5 reports for a single issue (for one malfunctioning processor: 2 audi reports, an ENT report, a manufacturer report, etc.), so it's tough to walk through.

Some info on hi-freq hearing loss and CIs:
High Frequency Hearing Loss - Hybrid Cochlear Implant - Cochlear | Cochlear Southeast Asia

(My daughter's audiogram shows at 8000Hz: 90db unaided (both sides, pre and post-CI) ==> 15db with CI)

As it turns out, he's not elgible at the moment (found out yesterday afternoon).

But thank you for that link to the hybrid - that is amazing! I met with Harry's SLP yesterday to ask her thoughts (before we found out he isn't eligible) and she was musing "it would be great if he could get a partial implant for the high frequencies, combined with amplification for the low frequencies, but I don't know if that exists yet." So, reading about the hybrid is amazing!! If he can keep/use his residual hearing with HAs, but also get an implant for the high frequencies, that would be brilliant. I guess we'll wait a few years and see where the technology goes. I don't think Harry's audi has ever gotten a response at 8000hz, his thresholds are 110-120 at 4000hz.

eta Just realised your link is to the South-East Asia region - no mention of Hybrid if you switch your region to North America. I wonder why that is??

Looks like it's still in it's trial period here in the us and pending FDA approval. I did a quick search and found a small number of universities offering trials for the product, but the ones I checked on say people must be 18 or older and I suspect they will probably be approved for adults before children (though one can hope they approve for both at the same time!). I've got my fingers crossed that they become available to you very soon. It's good to know they are there, now you can make sure to check in on their status or let your audiologist know they exist and that you want them for your son as soon as they are available. They certainly sound like a great alternative than risking the great residual hearing people with high frequency loss have.

Does anyone have a child with severe to profound loss 80db bilateral and hearing aids helped and they benefitted from them any experiences or advice would help.. Hes had them on for a week and a half hes 18 months old




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