Study of Electric Auditory Brainstem Response Parameters in Children after Cochlear Implant

Abstract

The cochlear implantation (CI) surgery is very complicated surgery, which needs high experience in microscopic ear surgery. in addition to exorbitant cost it requires artificial cochlear price and cost of surgery. Besides cochlear implantation stay escort to the child during his life, for this reason, the idea of research comes to apply and study electric auditory brainstem response eABR test which is the only internationally approved test to check cochlear implant electrodes performance one by one, this is done by studding the parameters of eABR.

Materials and Methods: we have been applied the eABR test  to fifteen  of Childs CI in Syrian organization for person with disabilities _ AMMAL in Syria, their ages are between  (4-9)  years old  and  hearing age between (2-6)years, after the study lab was equipped with necessary equipment for testing, and the protocol for the application of the eABR test was developed.

The results: efficiency of the eABR test in checking the cochlear implantation electrodes and making sure of their performance, and comparing the results with the patient's auditory condition (e.g. hearing . pronunciation of  letters, communicate with the community...) and patient's health condition(complications during and after the surgery, cases of inner ear malformation, exposure to sever infections, bruised), the other result is CI electrodes not affected during patient 's life, results did not appear clear relation ship between the amplitude of wave V and the Word Recognition Score (WRS), there is a relationship between the absence of the wave V and Word Recognition Score, a positive  relationship was reached between the applied stimulus intensity and amplitude of fifth wave in eABR graph,  Statistical analysis was carried out for the studied sample, we found that there is a simple correlation between hearing age and Speech Recognition Thresholds(SRT),and there is correlation between PTA (Pure Tone audiometer Average) and SRT, the analysis did not show aclear correlation between the amplitude of wave V with both SRT and PTA, because the study sample is small. the important practical results of research is the eABR test was applied for the first time in Syria and obtain accurate electrically stable auditory responses.