Abstract
The cochlear implant has been approved as a method of treating bilateral deep deafness since the 1980s, and since then candidate selection methods have changed several times. Initially, the candidates were only adult patients, and in 1990 the cochlear implant was approved for the first time in children under 2 years of age by the US Food and Drug Administration. In 2000, the same US Administration reduced the limit to one year. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age at cochlear implantation on speech recognition abilities. Concerning the age groups in which the subjects were assigned to, the best results on the tests were achieved by the group who underwent cochlear implantation at the youngest age. In conclusion, the benefit from cochlear implant in subjects with pre-lingual hearing impairment of the most severe degree has to be stressed and it is much bigger in comparison to individual amplifying hearing aids. If cochlear implant is placed at the youngest age, the results might lead to even 100% of active involvement in the social life of individuals with this kind of impairment.
Highlights
Material and methodsEarly detection of hearing impairment as a prerequisite for timely speech and language treatment in the so-called critical period of speech and language development enables optimal integration of a child in the society
The revolutionary changes in the technology of cochlear implant happened in 1990 and it resulted in clinical approach to cochlear implantation
The improvement of implants, especially in the strategy of speech encoding has offered a larger spectrum in the selection of candidates for cochlear implantation[1,6]
Summary
Material and methodsEarly detection of hearing impairment as a prerequisite for timely speech and language treatment in the so-called critical period of speech and language development enables optimal integration of a child in the society. Subjects with severe sensorineural hearing loss greater than 90 dB cannot benefit from the most contemporary conventional hearing aids. In such cases, the unique help is offered by the most modern achievement of microelectronics in the medicine – the cochlear implant, which replaces the function of the inner ear. The improvement of implants, especially in the strategy of speech encoding has offered a larger spectrum in the selection of candidates for cochlear implantation[1,6]. Hearing and speech perception in different subjects has shown different results. No matter what the performances and specifics of the implants are, some subjects show more rapid improvement in the skills and some do not
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