CI Statistics

LuciaDisturbed

LuciaDisturbed

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I'm looking for some statistics on CI-related deaths (illnesses, freak accidents, etc) I am googling it right now but am not having very much luck finding statistics on this. I need this info so I can show someone that it's not THAT DANGEROUS and to debunk some myths.

Anybody? It has to be a reputable source.

No Anti-CI bullshit, please.

Thanks in advance!
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I'm looking for some statistics on CI-related deaths (illnesses, freak accidents, etc) I am googling it right now but am not having very much luck finding statistics on this. I need this info so I can show someone that it's not THAT DANGEROUS and to debunk some myths.

Anybody? It has to be a reputable source.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Far as I know, Lucia, the only thing you need to be concerned with is the meningitis risk. If you get vaccinated, you should be okay. Also, the only CI that seems to at issue is the Advanced Bionic model with the positioner (spacer). As you might recall, AB models with positioners were discontinued. Therefore, the risks of cochlear implant infection is pretty low.

If you want to spend time, you could try googling associated risks for the different models, and see what you find.

Hope this helps. :)
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I'm looking for some statistics on CI-related deaths (illnesses, freak accidents, etc) I am googling it right now but am not having very much luck finding statistics on this. I need this info so I can show someone that it's not THAT DANGEROUS and to debunk some myths.

Anybody? It has to be a reputable source.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Yes, I have the info! My husband works for the one of the largest, reputation pharmacetuical company. He is a Principal Statistical Programmer for Clinical Information Science CV (CV is for heart). He works with the FDA. (research, develop, analyze, report to the FDA in Wash, DC) My husband showed me the information on CI information. Let me ask my husband to get me the info and post it here. In fact, many people with CI asked the doctors NOT to report to the FDA because this is volunteer and it is their rights. I know it's not fair!

And my friend who had the CI for 3 years and she ALMOST DIED in 3 years ago!!!! She told her doctor NOT to report it to the FDA because she wanted to keep it private. She had the rights. She was on the plane -flying out from NC to Florida - her ear???? I forgot what word but anyway it got leaked. She felt like "electric shock very badly". She was sooooo hysterical and the crew tried to help her and it was very painful. Thank God that it didn't happen in the middle of the flying time. The plane was almost landing and it popped and became leaking. She screamed. When the plane landed, the ambulance was ready for her to the ER. The doctor removed her CI. Thank God she was ok. She was VERY, VERY MAD that it happened to her. Now, she refuses to go for another CI. Anyway, the doctor sent this CI part to the manufacturer and they anaylzed for SEVEN MONTHS!!!!!!!!!! It made her so angry because she wanted to know IF this CI was malfunction. Finally, they told her that yes, CI was malfunction.

It was so terrible!

Her sister still has a CI but she doesn't use it much as she used to use it a lot before. But not anymore...she lost interest in using the CI.

This is really unfortunately for my friend. She warned me not to get it for myself. So, I took her advice. I simply do not want to take the risk. I'm very happy for who I am.

Momoftwo:)
 
Momoftwo said:
Yes, I have the info! My husband works for the one of the largest, reputation pharmacetuical company. He is a Principal Statistical Programmer for Clinical Information Science CV (CV is for heart). He works with the FDA. (research, develop, analyze, report to the FDA in Wash, DC) My husband showed me the information on CI information. Let me ask my husband to get me the info and post it here. In fact, many people with CI asked the doctors NOT to report to the FDA because this is volunteer and it is their rights. I know it's not fair!

And my friend who had the CI for 3 years and she ALMOST DIED in 3 years ago!!!! She told her doctor NOT to report it to the FDA because she wanted to keep it private. She had the rights. She was on the plane -flying out from NC to Florida - her ear???? I forgot what word but anyway it got leaked. She felt like "electric shock very badly". She was sooooo hysterical and the crew tried to help her and it was very painful. Thank God that it didn't happen in the middle of the flying time. The plane was almost landing and it popped and became leaking. She screamed. When the plane landed, the ambulance was ready for her to the ER. The doctor removed her CI. Thank God she was ok. She was VERY, VERY MAD that it happened to her. Now, she refuses to go for another CI. Anyway, the doctor sent this CI part to the manufacturer and they anaylzed for SEVEN MONTHS!!!!!!!!!! It made her so angry because she wanted to know IF this CI was malfunction. Finally, they told her that yes, CI was malfunction.

It was so terrible!

Her sister still has a CI but she doesn't use it much as she used to use it a lot before. But not anymore...she lost interest in using the CI.

This is really unfortunately for my friend. She warned me not to get it for myself. So, I took her advice. I simply do not want to take the risk. I'm very happy for who I am.

Momoftwo:)
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but what you said above is not from a reputable source. I want to see links from reputable sources, such as medical journals and abstracts and the like. Not hearsay.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I'm sorry, but what you said above is not from a reputable source. I want to see links from reputable sources, such as medical journals and abstracts and the like. Not hearsay.
Click to expand...

It's possible there are no reputable stats for this?
 
Lucia, There are NO CI-related (IE surgery or died from having CI ) deaths! Of course there were meningitis related death post CI operations.

Of course... there are severals risks which we have already outlined them somewhere in AD in the past such as vertigo. In the past like a decade or two (even more) the risk were greater than it is now as technology improve and the advances in medical fields improves.

EDIT: you can check out FDA's website on CI: Cochlear Implants
 
I concur with Boult. This is not something that the medical community could hide if they tried. In terms of freak accidents, er...well I don't think it is gonna matter whether you have a CI or not.
 
When my husband goes to work tmw morning, he will send me the FDA's websites and then I will post here. Be back to you tmw!:)

GN

Momoftwo:)
 
Boult said:
Lucia, There are NO CI-related (IE surgery or died from having CI ) deaths! Of course there were meningitis related death post CI operations.

Of course... there are severals risks which we have already outlined them somewhere in AD in the past such as vertigo. In the past like a decade or two (even more) the risk were greater than it is now as technology improve and the advances in medical fields improves.

EDIT: you can check out FDA's website on CI: Cochlear Implants
Click to expand...

Thanks, Boult!

Yeah, that was what I was thinking...meningitis, yes, but other than that...it would have to be a FREAK accident...but I wanted to show someone that this was what I am trying to say.

And of course, all surgeries, no matter how minor or how major, ALWAYS come with some kind of risk. That's just how it is.

Meningitis risks can be greatly reduced with vaccinations, of course.
 
Also try the Entrez PubMed website - they store loads and loads of abstracts about studies done into Cochlear Implants as well as other areas. I did a search today using "cochlear implant + complications" and found a number of studies. For some reason AD won't let me post the links on here but none of the studies included deaths and the complications rates were low in all of them.
 
Cloggy said:
Excellent information. Wish there would be a database like this for succesful implantations as well.

I've seen it before, but it's good to show it again from time to time.
Click to expand...

Hi Cloggy!

Yes, I wish they have the database for successful implanations, too.

And I wish they require people to report to the FDA so that way we would be able to see the differences accuately. I hate voluntary. Yes, it's not fair!

Momoftwo:)
 
Momoftwo said:
For Lucia-


FDA > CDRH > MAUDE Database Search

Type in Search box "cochlear implant" and click "enter"....

These reports are consumers for voluntary reporting of serious adverse events to the FDA. I am sure there are a lot of patients who didn't want to report as private.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/
Click to expand...

The thing is to note Momoftwo is that about 85% of CIs have no complications at all (see the studies for the past two years listed under the Pub med website). Complications are mostly minor ones and severe complications are rarer still. The device failure rate is around 4% which means that roughly 96% of devices have no problems. I think this is pretty good!

It is easy to lose perspective and balance when reading a list of all the complications that have ever been reported. As Cloggy said, if you were to read a similar database listing the successes you would get a more rounded perspective on it. But this depends on the viewpoint that you already have. We all adopt selective attention to particular facts don't we?

In life there is a risk with everything. I assume you drive a car? You accept the relatively small risk of death that comes with that because of the associated benefit. I wonder if there is a database somewhere that lists all the deaths and injuries that resulted to people from driving a car? And maybe as you say there are truckloads of more people out there who don't report their car injuries. It would be enough to put you off wouldn't it?
 
Momoftwo said:
For Lucia-


FDA > CDRH > MAUDE Database Search

Type in Search box "cochlear implant" and click "enter"....

These reports are consumers for voluntary reporting of serious adverse events to the FDA. I am sure there are a lot of patients who didn't want to report as private.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/
Click to expand...

This is very cool.. I didnt know the doctors reported these sort of stuffs.. I found my report in there based on information/date provided in the report. But it would be nice if it reported which hospital / doctor reported.

I was originally implanted in 10/16/2001 and became infected within 2 days but it was treated; however, the infection came back a few months later and fought it with a lot of drugs until the pain became unmanagable (even a sightly touch to implanted area hurt like hell) and infection was untreatable with any drugs. My original implant (left ear) was removed and replanted with new one on right ear on same day on 1/4/2004.

I was so glad the infection is gone and was initially worried when the mapping didn't seem same as original left ear. Music was disorted, sounds didnt match as before.. But forunately, it went back to normal few months later after few mappings.. I now can enjoy music and carry on conversions at ease as I did with original implant.

Sorry if this got off topic a little. :)

Richard
 
RichardDeaf said:
This is very cool.. I didnt know the doctors reported these sort of stuffs.. I found my report in there based on information/date provided in the report. But it would be nice if it reported which hospital / doctor reported.

I was originally implanted in 10/16/2001 and became infected within 2 days but it was treated; however, the infection came back a few months later and fought it with a lot of drugs until the pain became unmanagable (even a sightly touch to implanted area hurt like hell) and infection was untreatable with any drugs. My original implant (left ear) was removed and replanted with new one on right ear on same day on 1/4/2004.

I was so glad the infection is gone and was initially worried when the mapping didn't seem same as original left ear. Music was disorted, sounds didnt match as before.. But forunately, it went back to normal few months later after few mappings.. I now can enjoy music and carry on conversions at ease as I did with original implant.

Sorry if this got off topic a little. :)

Richard
Click to expand...

I'm glad you are doing well with the CI now!

Did you find out the exact cause of infection? I'm curious...
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I'm glad you are doing well with the CI now!

Did you find out the exact cause of infection? I'm curious...
Click to expand...

No they didn't know exact cause.. But did said that the infected implant area was very "red" and a lot pus fluid under the skin but the bone is not "infected" (very forunately!!).. I was bleeding more than typical on my 2nd surgery. Probably due to pain medicine I was on for so long. I didn't get blood tranfuse (spelling?) but I was pretty weak for about a weak due loss of blood. I was admitted into hospital for a night for observation and I was in bed recovering for a week at home before I started to feel better. It wasn't a "typical" recovery.

I was also concerned I would be "hooked" on valium and narc pain pills that I was taking for nearly 2 years to control the pain from infection. But I seem didn't need it anymore a month after 2nd surgery.. I was very forunately I wasn't hooked to the rx drugs when pain was completely gone.

Richard
 
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