Cochlear implant surgery is Safe!!

shel90 said:
There was a thread about it here a few years ago. It is somewhere in the CI section. The girl died from bacterial mengities from the surgery or something like that. She was only 8 years old.
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That child contracted meningitis several years after receiving a CI, not as a result from surgery, and she hadn't been vaccinated.

A child with a CI can get meningitis and it doesn't have to be because they have an implant, just as a child without an implant can get meningitis. You can have all the vaccinations available, and still get meningitis.

My own child contracted bacterial meningitis several years after her CI surgery, AND she had all the proper vaccinations. BUT, she has malformed cochlea and when she got an ear infection in her NON-implanted ear, it traveled by a tiny fistula into the cerebrospinal fluid. Never came anywhere near her implant, and would have happened even if she didn't have an implant.

Having a CI does increase your risk of contracting meningitis, but only slightly over the general population. And those with the implants with positioners (no longer on the market) have a slightly more elevated risk than other CI users. But as our surgeon said, the deaf non-CI population is also at a slightly increased risk over the general population due to those with abnormal anatomy, like my kiddo...
 
MomToDeafChild said:
That child contracted meningitis several years after receiving a CI, not as a result from surgery, and she hadn't been vaccinated.

A child with a CI can get meningitis and it doesn't have to be because they have an implant, just as a child without an implant can get meningitis. You can have all the vaccinations available, and still get meningitis.

My own child contracted bacterial meningitis several years after her CI surgery, AND she had all the proper vaccinations. BUT, she has malformed cochlea and when she got an ear infection in her NON-implanted ear, it traveled by a tiny fistula into the cerebrospinal fluid. Never came anywhere near her implant, and would have happened even if she didn't have an implant.

Having a CI does increase your risk of contracting meningitis, but only slightly over the general population. And those with the implants with positioners (no longer on the market) have a slightly more elevated risk than other CI users. But as our surgeon said, the deaf non-CI population is also at a slightly increased risk over the general population due to those with abnormal anatomy, like my kiddo...
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That is exactly how my son contracted menengitis. Through a CSF leak into a malformed cochlea. He was at a high risk of contracting it again so that packed the malformed choclea to minimise the risk of future infections. He was also imunized and all of this was prior to him getting a CI. Unfortunatly, the CI was of no benefit in his case.
 
rockdrummer said:
Unfortunatly, the CI was of no benefit in his case.
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May I ask why CI didn't work for him? Some people think CI works for anyone who is a candidate. The risk you take with CI is that if it doesn't work or benefit you, then you can never go back to HA. How was he hearing with HAs before CI?
 
deafdude1 said:
May I ask why CI didn't work for him? Some people think CI works for anyone who is a candidate. The risk you take with CI is that if it doesn't work or benefit you, then you can never go back to HA. How was he hearing with HAs before CI?
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He never had HA's. He was born with a malformed cochlea on one ear and lost the hearing in the other due to menengitis after which he was profoundly deaf. Severe ossification of the cochlea was most likley the reason the CI was not successful.
 
rockdrummer said:
He never had HA's. He was born with a malformed cochlea on one ear and lost the hearing in the other due to menengitis after which he was profoundly deaf. Severe ossification of the cochlea was most likley the reason the CI was not successful.
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Was this implant performed in the days when they didn't know that this ossification would render the CI non-workable? Do they NOW not implant when they see this ossification?
 
rockdrummer said:
He never had HA's. He was born with a malformed cochlea on one ear and lost the hearing in the other due to menengitis after which he was profoundly deaf. Severe ossification of the cochlea was most likley the reason the CI was not successful.
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Can I ask, do HAs work at all for him? Just curious!
 
AlleyCat said:
Can I ask, do HAs work at all for him? Just curious!
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Not meaning to butt in here but I've understood, for a long time, that a CI is approved only after it is determined that the person is beyond the help of a hearing aid.....among other factors leading to implantation.
 
Tousi said:
Was this implant performed in the days when they didn't know that this ossification would render the CI non-workable? Do they NOW not implant when they see this ossification?
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They will implant a cochlea with ossification today. They use different methods, and they have different expectations for ossified cochlear implants. I think it depends on who, how much, and the surgeon.
 
Tousi said:
Was this implant performed in the days when they didn't know that this ossification would render the CI non-workable? Do they NOW not implant when they see this ossification?
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I am not sure what they did or did not know at the time. He is 13 now and this was back when he was two, so about 11 years ago.
 
rockdrummer said:
I am not sure what they did or did not know at the time. He is 13 now and this was back when he was two, so about 11 years ago.
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This is a very hard situation. You have both the malformed cochlea and the ossification working against the success of the CI. I'm sure it was a very hard decision and I don't know what I would have done in your situation. CI or not I am sure you have worked hard to make sure your son is thriving.
 
faire_jour said:
They will implant a cochlea with ossification today. They use different methods, and they have different expectations for ossified cochlear implants. I think it depends on who, how much, and the surgeon.
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Thank you. What are today's expectations with ossified cochleas?
 
rockdrummer said:
I am not sure what they did or did not know at the time. He is 13 now and this was back when he was two, so about 11 years ago.
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So you don't have any recollection of a conversation about ossification or some "difference" of the cochleas that they'd seen in those days. Were those days within the clinical trial period?
 
faire_jour said:
This is a very hard situation. You have both the malformed cochlea and the ossification working against the success of the CI. I'm sure it was a very hard decision and I don't know what I would have done in your situation. CI or not I am sure you have worked hard to make sure your son is thriving.
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Thank you faire_jour and yes it was a very difficult decision where we had to consider many factors. And due to the threat of ossification we also had very little time to decide. Unfortunatly the ossification set in quickly. I do my best to include my son in things and show him love and we communicate to the best of our abilities. It is getting better but it's a slow process.
 
Tousi said:
So you don't have any recollection of a conversation about ossification or some "difference" of the cochlea that they'd seen in those days. Were those days within the clinical trial period?
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What I recall about ossification was that we had to make a decision in a very short amount of time due to the threat of ossification setting in. The first CI was not under clinical trials. A second CI with a dual array was attempted but there was no gain from that either. That particular CI (the second one) was under clinical trials at that time if my memory serves me.
 
Tousi said:
Thank you. What are today's expectations with ossified cochleas?
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I'm not sure. My child didn't have that issue, so I don't know much. I do know that they (Medel) have different electrode arrays for different cochlea situations.
 
Yes Medel dual array was attempted but no success. Again that was over a decade ago.
 
Thanks for explaining. So I take it he had no residual hearing when you made the choice for CI? I respect your choice, I would have done the same for my son(if I had children) if he had no residual hearing that could be amplified with HAs.

http://www.alldeaf.com/hearing-aids-cochlear-implants/70237-next-breakthrough.html

This could be an option. He will be an adult by the time ANI(auditory nerve implant) is FDA approved. Does he have any desire to hear sounds or even speech in his life? How well does he read lips and how clearly does he speak?
 
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