More can benefit from cochlear implants
Technological improvements in cochlear implants have increased the group of severely and profoundly hearing impaired people who may benefit from implants, according to an article written by two Australian doctors in the Australian Family Physician periodical.
- Severe to profoundly hearing impaired individuals of any age, including infants and geriatric patients, are now considered as candidates for cochlear implant surgery, rather than only the profoundly hearing impaired, they wrote.
Ten times more
The Swedish association of hearing impaired people, HRF, estimated that 10 times the number of people with cochlear implants in Sweden could enjoy significant benefits from the implants.
Currently, about 1,000 Swedes have the implanted devices. Most of them have enjoyed significant improvements in their quality of life, according to recent Swedish research. But HRF believes the number of implant recipients could be 10 times higher.
Infants, too
While the Swedish study focused on adults, scientists elsewhere have looked into the possibility of infants receiving cochlear implants.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota evaluated results of cochlear implants in 15 children who received their devices before the age of 12 months.
- In our experience, we feel cochlear implantation is safe for infants as young as 6 months of age, the researchers write in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology.
Another American team of researchers compared speech development among children who have implants. Children implanted earlier in life (in the first four years of life) had faster rates of spoken language acquisition than children implanted later in life, the team concluded in the journal Ear and Hearing.
Sources: Australian Family Physician, vol. 37, nr. 5; www.hrf.se, International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, vol. 72, nr. 5; Ear and Hearing, vol. 29, nr. 4.
Published on hear-it on December 18, 2008.
