Pre-cochlear Implantation Aural/Oral Rehabilitation, Is it Mandatory?

Volume 2 - Issue 1

Rabeea Al Sabeela¹, Safinaz Nagib Azab^2*

Received:April 16, 2019;   Published: April 29, 2019

DOI: 10.32474/SJO.2019.01.000129

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Abstract

Background: The use of cochlear implantation (CI) can fully restore hearing. Consequently, speech production can improve over time and enters the normal rang when traditional amplification Devices (hearing aids) are unable to restore access to the full range of phonemic components of speech, a cochlear implant (CI) is a widely used treatment option for children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the functional benefit of the communicative skills of children with CI without pre-implantation aural/oral rehabilitation in relation to those with CI with pre-implantation 6 months aural/oral rehabilitation in order to compare the role of pre-implantation aural/oral rehabilitation on the communicative abilities of severe to profound and profound sensorineural hearing impaired children.

Method: This study has a prospective design. It started after final diagnosis and decision that all children are candidates for CI but half of them are fitted with behind the ear hearing aids and the other half of children are immediately implanted provided that the primary language assessment before rehabilitation is present in the medical files of these children. A 2nd language assessment was done after 12 months of language therapy to detect the progress of the language development. These sixty patients were divided into two groups:

a) Group A: Thirty children, who have used behind the ear hearing aids for one year before CI and attended regular language therapy.

b) Group B: Thirty children, who shifted immediately to cochlear implantation, and were enrolled in auditory training and language therapy for one year.

Results: Total language age of children using cochlear implant without pre-implantation aural/oral rehabilitation is significantly higher than that in the children while using hearing aids for one year before CI. Also, there is highly significant difference between frontal and back speech sounds in the children after immediate implantation with positive correlation.

Conclusion: Cochlear implant is safe & reliable technique. The fact that many profoundly hearing impaired children using immediate cochlear implant without pre-implantation aural/oral rehabilitation can develop functional levels of speech perception & production, develop competency level in a language other than their primary language and continuation of language therapy together with proper mapping accordingly is a must to enroll these children in main stream education.

Keywords: Hearing Aids; Cochlear Implant; Language; Speech Intelligibility Pre-implantation Rehabilitation

Abbreviations: SNHL: Sensorineural Hearing Loss; HA: Hearing Aids; CI: Cochlear Implantation

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