Head trauma associated with temporal bone fractures is a well known aetiological factor for deafness. The literature assessing the outcomes of cochlear implantation in such cases is rather limited. In this paper, the authors compared the performance of implantees with deafness secondary to head trauma, with controls who had another aetiology of deafness. The results of the study revealed that the performance of the group of cochlear implant adult users who have acquired hearing impairment after head trauma was globally lower than that of the group of hearing impairment with other aetiologies. Few comparisons were found statistically significant and this may be attributed to the small number of participants in the head trauma group (only 14). It seems that head trauma co-morbidities may affect the outcome and auditory rehabilitation may improve the outcome. However, better study design with more patients could clarify these rather theoretical views.
Does head trauma as aetiology of deafness affect the outcomes of cochlear implantation?
Reviewed by Thomas Nikolopoulos
Auditory rehabilitation after cochlear implantation in adults with hearing impairment after head trauma.
CONTRIBUTOR
Thomas Nikolopoulos
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Athens, Greece.
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