Cochlear implant revision surgeries in children.

INTRODUCTION: The surgery during which the cochlear implant internal device is implanted is not entirely free of risks and may produce problems that will require revision surgeries.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the indications for cochlear implantation revision surgery for the cochlear implant internal device, its effectiveness and its correlation with certain variables related to language and hearing.

METHODS: A retrospective study of patients under 18 years submitted to cochlear implant Surgery from 2004 to 2015 in a public hospital in Brazil. Data collected were: age at the time of implantation, gender, etiology of the hearing loss, audiological and oral language characteristics of each patient before and after Cochlear Implant surgery and any need for surgical revision and the reason for it.

RESULTS: Two hundred and sixty-five surgeries were performed in 236 patients. Eight patients received a bilateral cochlear implant and 10 patients required revision surgery. Thirty-two surgeries were necessary for these 10 children (1 bilateral cochlear implant), of which 21 were revision surgeries. In 2 children, cochlear implant removal was necessary, without reimplantation, one with cochlear malformation due to incomplete partition type I and another due to trauma. With respect to the cause for revision surgery, of the 8 children who were successfully reimplanted, four had cochlear calcification following meningitis, one followed trauma, one exhibited a facial nerve malformation, one experienced a failure of the cochlear implant internal device and one revision surgery was necessary because the electrode was twisted.

CONCLUSION: The incidence of the cochlear implant revision surgery was 4.23%. The period following the revision surgeries revealed an improvement in the subject's hearing and language performance, indicating that these surgeries are valid in most cases.