Reasons of Delay in the Referral for Cochlear Implantation of Pre-lingual Sensory-Neural Deaf Children

Introduction: Deafness is the most common congenital sensory disorder. Clearly, deafness has a lot of negative influence on a child’s growth, learning, and social communications. More than 90% of deafness cases are sensory-neural, which can be cured with cochlear implantation. One of the most important factors which can change the results of cochlear implantation is the child’s age at the time of implantation. In this work, the reason of delay in referring sensory-neural deaf children for cochlear implantation is studied. Methods: A questionnaire was designed to investigate the reasons of delay in regards to deaf children referred of age 3 or more. 54 children, 28 (51.9%) boys and 26 (48.1%) girls were studied. Variables such as age, sex, reason of delay, parents’ level of education, etc. were considered. Results: 36 (66.7%) cases were due to the unfortunate referrals by the Ear, Nose and Throat specialists, among which 19 (35.2%) of them were reported this to be the only reason. 20 (37%) cases reported improper services at the cochlear implantation centers as their reason. 3 (5.6%) cases were due to the unfortunate referral by the pediatricians. 21 cases reported the delay due to combined factors. In an additional study, 49 cases of children with deafness which referred for a cochlear implantation before the age of 3 were questioned of how they were informed of this treatment. 27 (56.3%) cases reported that they were referred by a physician. Conclusion: Many reasons can be concluded as to the main reasons for the delay in referring children with deafness for cochlear implantation. The most important factor can be inappropriate referral by the treatment-health system and the second reason can be considered improper services at cochlear implantation centers

The Impact of Cochlear Implants and Aural Rehabilitation Program on Auditory Skills of Children with Cochlear Implant

Objective: Aural rehabilitation program after a cochlear implant leads to improve the auditory performance of hearing impaired children. The present study aims to determine the effect of cochlear implants and aural rehabilitation program in the auditory development of children with cochlear implants (CI). Materials & Methods: This longitudinal descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 15 deaf children (m.a. 45.27 mo) who received CI in the AmirAlam cochlear implant center between August 2010 and January 2011. Auditory skills of deaf children were assessed before they received CI, and also 2, 4, 6 and 8 months after implantation. Data was collected interview with parents of deaf children through Newsha developmental scale. After determining the developmental age, Pretest Developmental Rate, Intervention Efficiency Index and Proportional Change Index were calculated. One-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc tests were used for analysis of data. Results: There was a significant increase in Pretest Developmental Rate during the aural rehabilitation after a cochlear implantation (P<0.0001). There was a significant difference among the 4 follow up assessments of Intervention Efficiency Index (P<0.0001). There was also a significant difference among the 4 follow up assessments of proportional change index (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Aural rehabilitation program after a cochlear implant can accelerate the development of auditory skills of children with cochlear implants, which in turn results in promotion of acquired skills close to normal hearing peer

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo Prevalence in Meniere’s Disease: Is Meniere\'s Disease a Predisposing Factor?

Background: Meniere’s disease (MD) is a chronic illness defined as an idiopathic syndrome of endolymphatic hydrops. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is a balance disorder and can be the sequel of diverse inner ear impairments. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of BPPV in MD patients. Materials and Methods: All patients with definite or probable MD participated in this cross-sectional descriptive and analytic study between March 2013 and February 2014. We used the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) criteria plus electrocochleography (ECochG) test results to define the presence of MD and positional tests to determine the presence of BPPV. The frequency was reported. Independent sample t-test was also used in SPSS19. Results: A total of 39 patients (43 ears) with definite or probable MD (26 female, 13 male mean age: 46.4 ± 9.2 years) were enrolled in this study. Six out of 39 cases (15.4%) had BPPV in the posterior semicircular canal. The mean duration of MD was 28.5 months in BPPV group and 13.2 months in the non-BPPV group. Regardless of the age of the patients, there was a significant difference (p = 0.02) between the duration of MD in the two groups. Conclusions: It seems that MD and BPPV are related and a longer duration of MD may result in a greater risk of developing BPPV

Comparison of Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Between Deaf Children with no Cochlear Implantation and Deaf Children 12-24 Months After Cochlear Implantation

Background and Objectives: It has been shown that cochlear implant significantly improves verbal communication in deaf children. The aim of the current study was to investigate and compare the verbal and non-verbal communication abilities in two groups of deaf children: without cochlear implant (CI), and children using CI for 12-24 months. The results were then compared with typically-developing children as the control group. Methods: 87 children participated in this cross-sectional, descriptive analytical study, (14 deaf children without CI, 25 children with CI that their hearing ages were 12 to 24 months and 48 normal children aged 12 to 24 months). A reliable verbal and non-verbal checklist was completed by parents and nonparametric method was used for data analyzing.    Results: The results indicated that non-verbal communication skills were similar in all groups with no significant difference (P>0.05). However, verbal abilities in deaf children without CI were significantly impaired compared to the children with CI and control group (P0.05).  Conclusion: It can be expected that deaf children who receive CI, will reach the verbal communication abilities of 12-24-month-old typically children, at least 12 to 24 months post-implantatio