Background: Bacterial meningitis is one of the major factors in the etiology of acquired sensorineural hearing loss in children and adults. Cochlear implantation in these patients is challenging because of inner ear ossification and fibrosis, and this procedure sometimes achieves poorer outcomes in this scenario than with other causes of sensorineural hearing loss. There has been little research into the factors affecting the outcomes of this procedure.

Objective: To evaluate the outcomes of cochlear implantation in patients with postmeningitis profound sensorineural hearing loss and to evaluate the factors that affect the results.

Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of thirty patients who were diagnosed with post meningitis profound hearing loss and underwent cochlear implantation at Rajavithi Hospital between 2001 and 2016. Preoperative language status, duration of deafness, preoperative imaging, and degree of electrode insertion were recorded. Categories of auditory performance-II test (CAP-II) was evaluated in all cases, one year postoperative.

Results: Thirty postmeningitis deafness patients underwent cochlear implantation. The median age at diagnosis of meningitis and age at implantation were 41 years (range 1 to 75) and 49.50 years (range 3 to 75), respectively. The median duration of deafness was 12 months (range 4 to 300), and the overall mean CAP-II at one year after surgery was 5.47±2.21. The postlinguistic group had a significantly higher CAP-II score than the prelinguistic one (p=0.006). Electrodes were successfully totally inserted in 19 patients (63.3%) and partially inserted in 11 (36.7%). The average CAP-II score in the group with fully-inserted electrodes was significantly higher than in the group with partially-inserted electrodes (p=0.045). There was no correlation between CAP-II score and age at meningitis diagnosis (p=0.069), age at time of surgery (p=0.105), duration of deafness (p=0.506), or preoperative CT (p=0.228) or MRI abnormality (p=0.078).

Conclusion: Cochlear implantation in patients with postmeningitis profound hearing loss had high success rates and favorable outcomes. Preoperative language status and degree of electrode insertion were factors that affected auditory performance results.

Keywords: Cochlear implantation, Postmeningitis hearing loss, Sensorineural hearing loss, Meningitis, Rajavithi Hospital

DOI: doi.org/10.35755/jmedassocthai.2021.02.11599

Received 29 June 2020 | Revised 14 September 2020 | Accepted 15 September 2020