老年及老年前期人工耳蜗植入的临床初步研究

目的 探索人工耳蜗在双耳重度或极重度聋和全聋的老年患者中的临床应用安全性和效果.方法 2008年11月至2009年11月解放军总医院先后对8例50岁以上患者行人工耳蜗植入术,其中男5例,女3例;年龄52～76岁,中位数58岁.所有患者术前均为双侧极重度感音神经性听力损失,佩戴助听器无效或效果不佳.观察患者手术耐受及并发症情况.开机后3个月进行助听听阈评估和言语评估.结果 8例患者手术顺利,术中神经反应遥测均引出反应.术后康复顺利,无任何并发症.开机3个月后声场内言语频率平均助听听阈啭音(听力级)为35～50 dB,但言语测听结果个体差异较大.部分患者单音节、双音节、安静及噪声环境下的句子可实现较好识别率.结论 老年前期及老年患者可耐受全身麻醉状态下的人工耳蜗植入,只要术前准备充分则为安全的手术,但部分病例为中耳炎(胆脂瘤)或颞骨外伤等因素导致,需要特别注意中耳情况.老年重度以上听力损失患者人工耳蜗植入可明显改善言语识别能力.

Preliminary clinical research of cochlear implantation in elderly and pre-elderly patients with profound hearing loss

Objective To explore the safety and efficacy of cochlear implantation among elderly patients with severe to profound hearing loss. Methods Eight pre-elderly and elderly patients with an medium age of 58 years who suffered from bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss received cochlear implantation between November 2008 and November 2009. The patients' tolerance to implant surgery and the occurrence of complications were observed. Three months after switch-on, aided threshold and speech performance were measured. Results The surgery was uneventful in all cases with normal intraoperative neural response telemetry elicited. Three months after switch-on, average aided threshold across speech frequencies was 35 -50 dB HL measured in sound field with warble tone. The results of speech audiometry showed large variation between individuals. Some patients achieved good performance in monosyllable recognition test, disyllables threshold test and sentences recognition test under both bubble noise and quiet conditons. Conclusions Pre-elderly and elderly patients can endure a state of general anesthesia for cochlear surgery without complications. Cochlear implant can provide reconstruction of speech recognition capabilities for elderly patients suffering from severe to profound hearing loss. Cochlear implantation can improve the quality of life of elderly patients with hearing loss.